The Snake Pit
by JinxedArt
Summary: Sylvia's gotten her Herpetology degree and she's doing great with it. Except for snakes. Her fear of them keeps her as far away as possible. So what happens when the zoo she works at manages to get a hold of a rambunctious skeleton naga? She gets roped into taking care of it. (Lamiatale au)(st)(ft)(sf)
1. A person

_ BEEP-BEEP_

_ BEEP-BEEP_

_ BEEP-BEEP_

Sylvia rolled over in her bed groggily trying to get out of her tangled bed sheets to reach the alarm. She tended to roll around to much in her sleep making her get tangled up in the white mess. Her fingers stretched out gently pushing off on her alarm. She rolled over in her bed not quite ready for the day hoping she could just lay there another moment before she had to move.

Her room was still dark it wasn't graced with the presence of light from a lamp or sunrise.

Reluctantly she shuffled the sheets off of her only getting her foot caught once trying to make it to the bedroom door. Her boss said she needed to be at work early.

She clenched her jaw tight and frowned. She already knew what it was about.

It was only a month ago when a landslide occurred knocking rocks, dirt, and trees from a nearby mountain. The slide had cleared off half the mountain and still, nobody knew what caused it. Reporters were covering it all over the news when some of them stumbled on a cave. It had been sealed shut until the landslide cleared its entrance.

It would have been turned into a new cave exploration experience for some experienced explorers but what they found in the cave kept everyone clear of the entire mountainside.

Snakeskin.

Not just any snakeskin either. Snakeskin that would put an anaconda to shame.

Sylvia got to her kitchen opening the fridge door the light giving visual to the contents of her fridge. She pushed the milk over pulling out a plate of defrosted chicken breasts. She pushed on the breast making sure they weren't still frozen and placed them on the table behind her. She left the fridge door open so she could see where the light switch was and flicked it on before closing the door.

Sylvia thought back to the reporter on t.v from a month ago. She felt a familiar chill run up her back remembering the woman holding up the massive orange molted snakeskin on the t.v. She didn't need to listen to the experts they got ahold of to know that it wasn't some fossil of a snakes skin.

That was something more recent, like say in the past month.

Sylvia pulled out a long pair of tongs from the pantry. She clicked them open and closed to make she they worked well. She grabbed the plate with the chicken and headed down the hallway. Next to her room was a door in neat, bright green, letters that spelled out 'Tick-Tock' on it.

"Waky, waky, eggs, and baky. Well, chicken but still you know what I mean."

Sylvia creaked the door open, careful not to spill the chicken on the wooden floor to a darkened room. Two small eyes reflected back at her from the floor in the corner. She flipped the light on and the room slowly adjusted to reveal a large nine-foot long crocodile on the floor.

The crocodile stared up at her from the floor next to his little in-ground pool. It had cost Sylvia a small fortune to have it inside but a plastic pool for her crocodile would require a lot more cleaning and honestly she was pretty sure he would just chew on it instead of making her have to constantly replace it. Not to mention hed be too big for it anyway.

Originally she had lived with her mother they had simply converted the backyard pool for him to use. When she got her entomology degree her mother insisted she move out and start her own life away from home. A phone call later asking her if she wanted a job from a nearby zoo allowed her to do just that, taking the crocodile with her.

"Tick-Tock you hungry?"

She used the clamps to grip a piece of chicken holding it out towards her massive pet. He heaved himself over in her direction climbing up a fake rock ledge built for him to sunbath on. Not that there was a lot of sun in his room the heat lamp provided the sunbathing he actually needed. He held his mouth open as Sylvia tossed the chicken inside and he snapped his jaws on it quickly. Gone in a blink of an eye the crocodile opened his mouth waiting for the next piece. Silvia slid the next piece in slowly to the impatient crocodile. He snapped his jaws down, silvia barly able to pull the tongs away in time.

"Hey, you know that's not food." She waved them in front of Tick-Tock as if to make a point. She knew the crocodile just didnt care.

After tossing him the last of the chicken on the floor this time, she scratched him under his chin a low grunt of acceptance vibrated in his chest.

"I have to go to work early today, Ticks. I'm not gonna be back till later tonight okay?"

He grunted at her before turning away and sliding into his pool. She let out a sigh knowing she was gonna have to get her shoes on and get ready to go now that Tick-Tock was fed.

She wasn't looking forward to meeting the Naga.

That's what they were calling them Nagas. Some folklore about giant snake men from India. Sylvia didn't know whether she believed in all that but she knew there were giant snakes out there now, no thanks to her job, or the reporters on t.v.

She rolled her shoulders trying to get Mark, her coworker, out of her mind. He was going on vacation and had asked for her specifically to take on his new job.

Caring for a giant blue skeleton Naga.

Sylvia's lips trembled her head ducked down to the side. Maybe she could call in sick till Mark came back from vacation or hide under her bed till it all blew over. She would likely be fired for missing the entire time and wouldn't be able to buy Tick-Tocks expensive food but it wasn't like he needed to eat every day either. Her arm shook and she gripped it tight to try and steady her breathing. Trying to find a new job would be too hard if she wanted to stay where she lived. After all the work she put in the house for her crocodile so he could be happily content she couldn't leave it behind. Who would buy a house with a gator pool in it anyway? Besides herself.

As if the snake part didn't terrify her enough they had to tell her it was also a skeleton? She tried not to imagine what it looked like but images of some giant fanged, slit-eyed, predator kept popping in her head. Everyone had a theory about what it looked like and would decide to share their ideas with Sylvia in hopes she would tell them there were right. This only added fuel to her nightmares.

Although Sylvia worked in the zoo that housed the creature, she had no idea what it looked like. She had been avoiding it as if the black plague was running rampant. Any pictures of bright blue scales she kept her eyes down towards the ground and any noise that sounded like a slither or a hiss from some venomous beast she covered her ears.

Her fear of snakes ran to her core to her very childhood and only grew worse with the teasing she had to endure. It made people look at her with narrowed eyes and pursed lips, they couldn't understand that despite her fear of snakes she loved other reptiles, like Tick-Tock.

Always had.

She could walk around at work and interact with different creatures with her entomology degree. Allowing her own private thoughts and opinions.

Komodo Dragons. Awesome.

Fire salamander. Cool.

Tortoise. Hell yea.

Corn snake. Fuck no.

She changed into her uniform for work consisting of a grey top and shorts. Her plastic name tag getting caught on her lanyard carrying her keys and security badge. Her specialty sock rolled all the way up to hide her ankles. She hated it when people stared at her scar.

Sylvia passed by the mirror on her way to the door checking her self out. She had a little bit of a pouch from some unhealthy eating habits freckles lined her face from too much sun and her glasses seemed thick and tended to slid down her nose too much for her liking.

Just like dad. Her eyes glanced to the photo of him on the corner of the mirror. His brown hair and stubble stood out on his white skin. He was holding a young smiling girl in his arms on a boat. The child was beaming up at him through her overgrown brown bangs, freckles splattered her face as she held up a turtle to the camera. The man smiling down at her one hand helping her hold the turtle for the camera.

With a quick kiss to the photo, Sylvia cast her eyes down away from the picture and left for work.

When she arrived she went straight to her office, keeping her head down away from the images in the hallways of anacondas and the like until she reached the lizard and gator section of the reptile house. She had made mental notes about where the images of snakes had been kept and unless anyone had come by without her knowledge and put up a new image she knew when she could look at her surroundings again.

She was greeted by friendlier painted faces of turtles and lizards. Her heart slowed down and she let out a breath of air she forgot she was holding. It felt like she entered into the backyard she had grown up in. The smell of swamp water and the sound of frogs greeted her in the halls of the lizard hall.

Next door, just past the newts and salamanders was the snake hut. In about two hours her boss, would ask her to join him in his office to go over her duties until Mark came back from his vacation. Sylvia only had the time it took to feed the enclosed reptiles and check on their water levels before she had half an hour to her self to try and prepare for the inevitable.

She began wringing her hands together trying to settle the anxiety building under her skin, but it didn't feel like it was working.

Why in the world would they make her take care of the naga? They already knew about her fear of snakes.

Mark, especially already knew about her fear of snakes. He had been there in the same school to enforce her fear of snakes, and thus enforce her fear of him. It wasn't fair that he would just up and leave her to what was probably going to be the most devastating experience of her life.

had even agreed with Mark to make her take the job. He knew her fears and unlike Mark, he wasn't trying to harras her in any way. She couldn't understand the two at all.

She was so good too. She did all she was asked, as long as it didn't involve the snakes and yet he was putting her with the biggest and most terrifying one she ever heard of in her life.

It was gonna eat her alive the moment she looked at it, she knew it.

"Sylvi-" She jerked her head a surprised gasp falling out of her mouth as she accidentally dropped her leftover tacos on the floor near Marks feet.

"Pft, scare you, sissy?" His smile tilted into a smirk. His bright blue eyes would have had her swimming in their aquamarine color if it wasn't for the dark mischief he tried to hide whenever he was around her.

His blond hair gave him a boyish appearance in the way it framed his face.

Sylvia felt her face flush with embarrassment as he picked up her leftovers from the floor.

"I'm not a sissy." She muttered under her breath but Mark looked up at her through his long eyelashes. He had heard her perfectly clear.

As he came up he gripped her wrist a little hard and put her lunch in her hand. The bag crinkled in her hand as he shoved it roughly into hers.

Something must have leaked a sticky, wetness grew from the bottom of the bag into her hand. She wrinkled her nose at the bag trying to figure out if it was sauce from her tacos on her hand or if she hadn't drained the grease from the meat like she thought she had.

"Ugh, Gross." She gripped the bag at the top and tried to shake whatever was on her hand off.

Mark covered his mouth but Sylvia could hear the laughing he was trying to hide as a few snorts escaped from his hand as he turned away from her.

"Try putting it into a plastic container next time." He turned his head towards her and smirked at her. His eyes trailing up her scrawny legs to her face. "Bye, sissy." A final wave to her and he disappeared around the corner most likely off to his vacation.

Sylvia stared off after him. She wanted to smack his smug face right into the alligator pond but not only would she lose her job, but she would also most likely come out disappointed when the alligators barely did a number on him. She had actually seen him wrestle a saltwater crocodile before and come out on top. A few nicks and scraps wouldn't be enough payback for her for everything he does and keeps doing to her.

She held the bag back up to her face as she watched the slightly red colored water from the sauce drip out of the bag.

At least they would still taste good.

With a final sigh, she turned to the cages getting ready for her chores preoccupied from the Naga. The distraction probably being the only thing she could thank Mark for, at least for the next hour while her mind pictured what it would be like if she actually managed to get enough determination to actually do something to him.

When she was finally done with the cleaning and feeding of the reptiles her mind had drifted back to the Naga. hadn't gone easy on her either like she hoped she could persuade him to let her do another job without giant skeleton snakes involved, but he had been firm in his decision.

"Relax Sylvia. Yer fear of snakes is holding ya back once we get you over this hurdle ya'll be fine. Mark guaranteed me ya be fine." He said.

If only he could see her now.

She stood just outside the door that led to an observation room for the employees to view the naga in its cage. Maybe she deserved this. It felt like she deserved this. Her stomach churned at the thought of opening the door in front of her but if she didn't...

What would happen to Tick-Tock?

She let out a breath and tightened her lips together, her fist clenching to her side. She had to do this for Tick-Tock. She would never be able to keep him or maintain him otherwise.

Her mother would offer to help if she did lose her job and her brother would give her that silent glare he normally always did when she was around.

Her mother was too nice sometimes. She often found she wished her mother would give her that same glare but she never did. She couldn't bring herself to rely on her mother, not again, not anymore.

She looked to the doorknob the key card slot just above it. Her hand shook as she held it out to the door keys insert. Her other hand gripped her wrist to try and steady her shaking arm letting the card go from between her fingers. It slid into the slot and the door made a clicking noise, the card slot showing green. Her hand slid next to the door taking in a shaky breath, she pushed it open.

The room at first blinded her it's bright fluorescent lights bathed the room in an almost pure white color. The green floor and painted blue walls gave it a calmer feeling than she thought it would.

The large blacked out window on the wall and steel door that led to the nagas cage made it feel like she swallowed a rock and it was now resting in the pit of her stomach.

A little dizzy she entered the room and pushed the door lightly letting it click close behind her and lock. She felt cold shivers running down her back as she approached the window to the nagas cave.

There was a light switch nearby so the cave behind the glass could be aluminated. The moment she chose to flick it on she would see her worst nightmare come to life. Her breath became harsh strains stuck in her throat a cold sweat dripped down the side of her face and her hearing intensified.

She listened but could hear no movement besides her own heartbeat trying to break out of her chest.

She needed to do this.

For Tick-Tock, the most stubborn, lazy, and loving crocodile she knew.

Her hand was on the switch before she knew it, without hesitation she flicked it on.

A low glow lit up the room behind the blacked out window showing a well-detailed cave. She couldn't remember the difference between the stalagmites on the floor and the ceiling or what types of rock it might be made of. Her sights were focused on a nearly empty room. Her eyes shifting to every corner trying to find the monster that hunted her in her nightmares. She saw rocks and some water that had accumulated on a wall to provide moisture and balcony's made of rough stone. But, no giant snakes.

She shivered it had to be in here. If it wasn't in here, then where the hell was it. A small click behind her caused her to yelp and turn around. Her eyes were only greeted by the sight of the green and blue room around her. Her eyes landed on a pen she had used earlier to mark charts for the containers of food to feed the reptiles. It had been haphazardly shoved in her shallow pants pocket and must have fallen out. It had to have fallen out.

She took in a breath of air and slowly lowered her self to the floor. She picked up the pen and placed it in her shirt pocket instead, making sure it wouldn't fall again. She stood back up slowly remembering she left the light on behind her in the cage.

Shakingly she turned slowly back to the cage trying to hold back tears that threatened to fall. She kept her eyes down afraid of what she might see. Like the pictures of the snakes that decorated some of the halls, she didn't want to look up. A movement from the corner of her eyes set her on full alert.

She found her chest tightening as she forced her eyes up to look back in the cave.

There towards the back something bright and blue was peeking around one of the stone columns. Her breathing hitched in her throat, color draining from her face. A large blue tail was slung around the column of rocks a few more dashes of blue leading around random jaunting stones in her direction. Sylvia's eyes went wide as it followed the path of blue to another rock closer to her.

Something white poking up behind the stone carefully raised itself in front of her. Her breathing hitched as that something white poked out behind the rock and locked eyes with her.

It resembled that of a human skull it's bone-like material far brighter and whiter than a normal skeleton. It's eye sockets were filled with a blue light that drifted over the room she stood in till they landed on her.

The creatures sockets went wide and it tilted it's head to the side staring at her. It raised it's head higher above the rock revealing its mouth to her. No sharp fangs greeted her like she thought they would instead a fairly normal looking mouth, for a skeleton, showed up behind the rock. He didn't look as scary as she thought he would, with that in mind she was able to swallow some air down. The skeleton seemed to notice her movement.

Before she could fully recover from the shock the skeleton's mouth stretched into a wide grin rivaling that of the Cheshire cats. He sprang over the rock causing Sylvia to yelp and fall backward moving to the wall behind her as fast as she could before she slammed up against the blue cement.

The skeleton toward near the top of the window separating them from one another. The bone feature seemed to continue downwards till it reached where Sylvia assumed his pelvis would be before it broke out to the long blue tail that had hidden behind the rocks.

Sylvia had herself pinned as far back to the wall as she could watching the naga in front of her tilt it's head in her direction. It lowered itself towards the ground pushing its tail further behind it. Sylvia watched as the tail coiled around the ground looking for a place to position itself while she felt a knot forming in her throat looking at it.

_Tap-tap-tap_

What was that? Her eyes started looking around for the source of the sound.

_ tap-tap_

Her eyes shoot towards the skeletal part of the naga. His index bone pointed to the glass as he tapped it against the window. His eyebrow bones pinch together at the center as he lowers himself to the ground in an attempt to seem smaller. His smile shrunk into a frown as he tilted his head at her, leaning forward on the glass.

Sylvia felt her mouth drop open, eyes wide staring at the skeleton unable to believe what she was seeing in front of her. Slowly she stood her back still pressed against the wall her breathing shallow. The skeleton watched her as she slowly made her way to the door. His smile shrunk realizing she was leaving.

Her eyes lifted to his face catching a trembling lower lip and a stare that felt like he was begging her not to go.

She paused at his reaction. Sure, Animals had always been able to express feelings if one knew what to look for but, these emotions just seemed so...human to her. Not animal like at all.

She let out a sigh and looked to the ground. This Nagas reaction made her think for a moment he was human. It was stupid of her to think they put someone of high intelligence like that In a zoo. She had a hard time believing they put dolphins in an aquarium though too.

It all just seemed stupid to her, even what she was going to do seemed stupid.

"Uhh, hello?" her voice shook as she forced herself to look up at the naga before her. He stared at her through the glass of his enclosure. Just as she suspected, he was just an animal. Her eyes went back to glancing over the floor.

He tapped on the glass again and her eyes went wide.

The skeleton held his hand up and waved to her.

She felt her breath leave her like there was a vacuum taking all the air out of her lungs.

"Ca-ca-can you understand me?"

The naga tilts his head to the side without taking his eye lights off of you. His little smile suddenly broke out into a fully beaming grin and slowly he nodded.

She couldn't believe it. Her back hit the wall again and she slid down It slowly, her eyes never leaving the naga's face.

He was not an animal.

He was sentient.

He was a person.


	2. Blue

I didn't get 5,000 words as I hoped but I thought I should send out a chapter of this with the holiday season coming up. I'm on a bit of a break from writing but I haven't stopped. I originally posted a previous chapter but for some reason, I was having issues with the posting and nobody was responding. To my suggestion or let me know what they thought. So I'm gonna wing it and find out. If I hit a fork in the road I'll ask what options you want the character to take when I get there.

* * *

"Oh my god, your-you-" You couldn't find the words.

He may not have been human but he was clearly no animal. He was self-aware and... and, god, facial expression, it was there too! He looked so happy you thought you saw stars in his eye sockets...wait, there were blue stars in his eye sockets... How is he doing- there were gone back to what looked like pinpricks of blue. He tilted his head in confusion watching you from the floor tilting his head more, a worried expression on his face.

He was adorable.

Even with the lower half of him resembling a snake you couldn't bring yourself to be afraid of him if you tried... well till you saw him flick a very snake-like blue tongue in your direction. Your shaken back at the sight almost hitting your head on the wall, it was just like a snake. You shivered a little at it and the skeleton's confused expression turned very sad, seeming to sense your fear.

You cautiously stood up and made your legs move back in front of the glass. He lowered himself to your height, his hands pressed against the glass with his face smushed against the glass. He seemed just as curious about you as you were of him.

Hesitantly you pressed your hand against the glass too. He pushed back a little to look at your hand, smiled, and got those shiny stars back in his eyes sockets. He pushed his hand against the glass where yours were until his hand alined with yours.

Nervously you smiled at him and he took notice, flicking his tongue back out you yanked your hand away and shivered. He looked confused at you pulling his own hands away. He looked at you than to his nonexistent nose and back again thinking. He stuck his tongue out again causing you to grimace and shiver but he didn't flick it this time and pulled it in right away. He seemed to realize it was his tongue that was scaring you and placed a hand over his mouth a sorry look on his face.

You nodded to his understanding, a blush graced your face. This guy probably thought you were weird for being afraid of a snake tongue. You did too honestly. You weren't afraid of lizards like the Gila monsters of even the komodo dragons, but when it was specifically a snake... "Sorry, I'm just...uh weird."

He pulled his hand away from mouth and you did too. He began shaking his head back and forth as if to disagree with you. He didn't stick his tongue out again and you went to stand in front of the glass, again.

"You...um." You weren't sure how to even start a conversation with him. He seemed to understand what you were saying at least to some degree. You had so many questions to ask him. You just weren't sure what to ask first. You weren't even sure he would answer them anyway...

Doubtful even he would know, or even if he did would be able to give you an answer you could understand?

Your mind raced with questions to try with him. Who was he? How did he get here? How did he exist this entire time hiding from humans? What did he eat? That was an important one you thought.

Not the pig or the other food he had been given.

You looked up at him pushing against the glass again looking at you. That when it occurred to you. You didn't know what to call him.

That was the question you should ask.

The Naga had waited patiently for you to decide what to say before you look up into his eager waiting eye lights.

"What's your name?"

The naga's eye lights turned to blue stars and he pointed to his eye sockets.

You weren't expecting that. "Your names...star?" It was a kinda girly name but he shook his head no looking a little embarrassed at the name you had assumed for him.

"Hmm, eye socket seemed like a pretty terrible name too but if it's not star then... a name meaning something like a star?" He blinked at you, you weren't even sure how he did that, before he smacked his face in an exaggerated and obviously, no, like answer.

"Nothing involving star then...huh."

He pulled his tail up towards him, making you flinch momentarily before he pointed to his tail.

"Okay, something in common with your tail?" He nods enthusiastically.

"Okay then. Tail and erm...eyes?" You pondered it for a moment.

His eyes were like bright blue stars.

And his tail was long, blue and...

Well, you feel stupid for not trying this one in the first place. Puzzles were never your thing.

"Is it...um, Is it Blue?" Out of all the snakes and reptiles in general, you have ever seen he was the most active little guy you ever met. At the mention of his name, he was bounding around in circles seeming to congratulate you on getting it right before he returned to the glass, star lights in place, staring at you again.

You couldn't help but smile his boundless energy seemed almost infectious to you. "Heh, okay Blue it is. My name's Sylvia. It's...uh, nice to meet you. Though I wish it was under better circumstances." You tapped on the glass gently. The blue stars didn't leave his eyes and he stopped pushing on the glass. He seemed to relax a little at your presence his shoulders slouched downward and his tail curled towards him.

"I'm...uh, bit out of my element on this. Erm, normally I help care and provide for the reptiles, but not snakes...uh, different story for a different time. But, what I'm trying to say is that this place is meant for animals, and uh, clearly your no animal." For a moment he seemed baffled his star lights went to blue lights again and his smile fell. He seemed to stare at you before slowly his smile broke out on his face again and his hands pushed hard on the glass. Then you noticed a blue liquid broke on his eye sockets and slowly began to fall from his face.

He was crying. You couldn't touch blue threw the glass but you never felt such a strong urge to comfort him. He reminded you of a child torn from his mother only wanting someone to help him find her.

"Hey, hey, please don't cry..." You tried to shush him to the best of your ability. His tears stayed but he smiled harder at you. He looked over at the door to his exhibit as if expecting something from you. His star lights glancing at you and the door.

You sigh. You can't help him.

You give him a sad look. He noticed but seemed to take in your own sadness and pulled back his own tears his smile didn't return.

"D-don't be too sad. Please. I'll let you out as soon as I can, I just don't have the code for the door to let you out." A small smile pulled at the side of his mouth. "I'll talk to my boss, explain your not an animal, and find a way to get you, uh, home." It seemed the most logical conclusion to you. Cook would be back in the morning and you would explain everything to him. He probably wouldn't believe you at first but if you show him Blue and his intelligence there was no way he would keep him locked in there.

"My boss, he, uh, won't be back till tomorrow morning though." You bite your lip out of a nervous habit. How was this going to work? He couldn't speak it seemed but his expression said a lot. Maybe a map or he could point...?

"Well, um, figure it out in the morning. Do you want me to turn the lights off so you can get some sleep?" Blue had on a worried expression and frantically shook his head, no.

"Oh, okay then. I'll uh, leave the lights on then." You turn to start leaving feeling awkward standing there when you hear a banging behind you. You turn to see Blue slamming his fist at the glass a terrified expression on his face, tears forming in his eye sockets again.

"What? Whats wrong?" Blue pointed a finger at you and jabbed it in your direction then pointed to the ground in front of his exhibit. "I-I can't get in there with you. I don't have the code." Did he misunderstand you before? He shook his head no, and repeated the action. Still not getting it you did notice his tears were getting heavier and they started to drip down his face.

"Oh, please don't cry Blue. I'm sorry I don't understand. I'll stay here with you if that would help. Please don't cry..." He shook his head and puffed out his chest as if insisting he wasn't crying. He then repeated his motion to you and the floor.

"...You didn't want me to leave?" He nodded again.

"I-i um, I'm so sorry. I should have realized sooner... Being alone is never fun. I don't think i'd be happy stuck in a cave all alone at night either." The tears left Blues eye sockets but his smile stayed the same. He simply didn't want to be alone or be caught crying...

"I know this is really soon since I just said i'd stay but..." Blue seemed afraid again but he didn't cry. He just worried waiting for you to continue. "I need to go grab a few things, like a chair and blanket, it's kinda cold on this side. Also some food cause I haven't been able to eat all day and... and, and..." Blue hadn't eaten anything since he got here. It had been nearly two weeks since he had been put in his environment. He had to be hungry. You clasped a hand over your mouth. How could you had been so stupid? You felt guilty even mentioning food since he hadn't eaten for so long himself.

"Oh God, T-that's right. You haven't eaten. What do you eat? Clearly not pig..." He tilted his head to the side again. That's right he couldn't respond unless it was a yes or no question.

"Right...uh, Rats do you eat rats?" Hesitantly he nodded that he did, but why the hesitation?

"Okay, you eat rats but not your first choice I assume?" He nodded. Better but still lacked the reaction you were looking for.

"Okay birds then?" The same hesitant nod.

"Pig?" Same nod.

"Hmm you eat pig but that pigs not eaten...so it's something else that stops you from eating?" He nods clearly happy somebody was starting to get it. Okay, he eats animals but he won't eat the ones he had been given. Maybe something from Mark's notes would help you.

"Okay, I'm still not sure yet, but let me get some supplies and I'll be back as soon as I can." He gave a slow nod as you left out the door back into the corridor. You promised you would be back as fast as you could and you planned on keeping that promise. You bolted down the corridor till you found the break room you frequented the most. You opened the fridge and pulled out your leftovers from last night. If you were going to be spending the entire time in the exhibit room you were going to grab everything you might the cheap plastic chair from the break room table.

You weren't sleeping tonight so you might as well be a little comfortable. With those in hand, you began running to the storage lockers next door, the chair clunking behind you as you dragged it across the floor. Perhaps getting the notes first would have been smarter than getting the chair first... You flung your locker open leaving the chair in the hallway grabbing the notes Mark had left behind earlier for you.

You stared at the brown paper bag with your lunch in it before you shrugged and grabbed that too.

You then made a mad dash back to Blue's exhibit room. You had the door swinging open so fast you thought it might fly off its hinges. Blue stood there looking out at you threw his window surprise and calmness washing over him.

"Told you,...I'd be back..." You needed to catch your breath. "...as soon as as...possible." Blue only smiled at grateful you were back and also curious. You placed the chair down near his window and plopped down in it, closing your eyes, taking a moment to catch your breath. You opened your eyes and nearly tripped out of the chair.

You weren't expecting him to be so close to you.

He was curled up near the glass where you sat. If the glass wasn't there you were sure he would be giving you a bear...er anaconda hug to you right now. He didn't seem to realize he scared you any and was impatiently waiting for you to look at the notes.

A blush crept up on your face. It was rather embarrassing it's not like Blue was trying to scare you. It was just how close he had gotten so fast. From this angle, you got a better view of his tail. While the shape was that of a snake the bright blue illmunsent color made you think of the neon lights in a bar. You couldn't be afraid of it if you tried. Blue curled his tail up behind himself, a neon blush skited over his own cheekbones and his eye lights drifted away from you trying not to look you in the face.

"Er, sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you. Normally I'm uh, afraid of snakes but... I can't seem to bring my self to be afraid of your tail. It's...a really pretty color though." You feel your cheeks heating up more, you didn't want to look him in the face. You force yourself to look anyway to see he had on an equally bright blush. Hesitantly he moved it so it pressed up against the glass. The movement was still snake-like and caused you to grimace but you held your ground. Carefully, you point at his tail and he gives a little nod. You move in closer to examine it, somehow the pattern looks familiar the color was throwing you off. You were certain the pattern was familiar. You wanted to take a picture but thought it seemed like too much to ask him so soon. He, after all, was already showing you his tail and was rather nervous about it.

"Thank you, for letting me look at your tail. You didn't have too, and...uh for future reference you don't have to say yes to my requests if they make you uncomfortable. Also, um,...uh still trying...to find out what to feed you." He gave you a sad look before motioning circles with his hand on his stomach.

He was hungry.

You nodded and pulled out Marks's notes. Blue-eyed the folder and backed away from the glass. He seemed to recognize it, a distasteful look on his face.

You giggled a little at his expression. "Guess we both don't like Mark? Good to know." You smile at Blue and he gives you one back. "Unfortunately it's the only thing I have to take a guess at what you will or won't eat." You open the book only to throw it across the room. You had turned to the eating habits section in his book to be greeted with a picture of a cotton-mouth striking out at its photographer. An image of its fangs erected and pointed out in your direction had caused you to immediately throw the book across the room.

You pulled your head into your hands letting out soft sobs. You weren't expecting Marks prank, too occupied attending to Blue, to think about his stupid jokes. He was such an asshole. He knew you would need the book and would have to look in it. You didn't understand why he did this to you. His pranks had ended and now they were back twice as bad since he managed to find a weakness in you that he helped make worse than before.

Tapping on the glass pulled you out of your thoughts. Blue was looking down at you in concern in his eye sockets.

"Eh...heh, s'sorry Blue. Ju-just really hate M-ma-mark." You sniffle a little and clutch the chair under you trying to steady yourself. Mark could have put any picture of a snake in there so why did it have to be a cottonmouth? You take a couple of moments to get the shaking in your arms and legs to stop. Reluctantly you stand and pick the book back up. You hold it over a trash bin near a desk and carefully you shake it by the spine getting loose pages containing more snakes to tumble out including the one of the cotton-mouth.

Most land in the garbage bin but you leave the few that didn't out on the floor. You would leave it for whoever had to clean in here.

You sat back in the chair the book under your arm. You flip back to Blue's eating habits in the journal. Doing a quick scan you can't see anything that would stand out or any unusual signs that something was wrong. All the food given to Blue was considered a healthy, expensive, meal for a snake. There didn't seem to be any reason for him not to eat what he was given. You bite your nail chewing on it carefully and glanced up at Blue. He was no longer pressing against the glass but laying on his stomach looking at you or the notes in front of you. He seemed calmer now, almost tired, a weak look about him.

"So according to this book he's given you a pretty amazing diet for snakes. Lot's of snakes here don't get any live food. Live food more expensive cause you have to feed the food to keep it alive. He's been giving you some of the best but you still don't eat it."

Blue blushed and looked away fidgeting with his hands. You still didn't quite understand but you know he needed something.

"You...you need to eat Blue." He flinched as if eating would somehow condemn him.

"Blue, it's not healthy for you, or anyone really. I'm pretty sure...I just, just can't figure out why you won't eat live..." You looked up at Blue your eyes widened. You felt like you could tap dance on the water you were excited. He didn't eat live animals. How did he survive in the wild confounded you but it wasn't your top priority.

You could understand where Blue was coming from you couldn't hunt your own food either. You couldn't stand taking the life out of an animal and then eating it. Survival, you could understand why people would have to do it but was Blue so determined not to kill and eat something even if he was hungry?

You don't know why it popped into your mind. It was like the answer was just given to you.

"You don't eat live animals?" At first Blue looked at you with a blank stare but an awed expression appeared on his face, slowly turning into the bluest starry-eyed, smile you've ever seen. He nodded his head so fast you thought it might pop off.

"So what do you eat?"

He blushed and his eyes looked away from you giving you a moment of relief. It wasn't humans at least. You tilted your own head at him catching his attention but he only gave you a sad look.

Just living animals he didn't eat. How did he eat in the wild? You weren't sure if you even wanted the answer. Had he stolen or had someone provided for him? He didn't seem to be the stealing type to you. Innocent almost, energetic defiantly.

If he was a thief he could easily pull the wool over her eyes, maybe even Marks. That prick.

The tapping sound made you look up the skeleton his eye sockets widening his mouth set in a frown. He almost looked on the verge of tears.

He needed food and soon.

Some dead animals were kept for the cheaper snakes to eat, dead rats and such but not only did you not want to see Blue eat a dead rat but the fact you would have to go threw the snake exhibit to get them made your toes curl and icy crawl up your backbone.

Your own stomach rumbled a little and you were reminded what it felt like to even be hungry. Snakes didn't need to eat every day but that didn't mean Nagas didn't.

If you had to get him snake food you would crawl threw the snake exhibit if you had too.

Just don't look at the snakes.

Your stomach grumbled again. Your leftover tacos still sat in the bag near the door. You had planned on eating them after you did your stuff with the Naga but... Maybe some company for dinner wouldn't be too bad?

"Do you like tacos by any chance? Your not human I know...but your human-like..." he gave you a confused look telling you he never had them. You weren't sure feeding him any would even be safe but like before there was a prod at your brain telling you it would be fine.

You glanced around the room trying to find out what was giving you the answers. You looked at Blue wondering for a moment whether it was him or not. He only continued to give you that confused. It wasn't him and yet answers we're magically popping in your head. You sighed maybe you were just tired.

You stood up and walked over to the brown paper bag before pulling out the plastic container with the soggy meat in it. Some hard shell tacos not broken from when Mark had scared you and cheese that had somewhat melted in the heat of the day.

Next time refrigerate, not leave it in the locker.

You put a taco together the best you could showing blue what you were doing. He just started confused at you. You took a bite and his eye bones raised up. You held the Taco up to the glass so he could see it better. His eye lights watching as some of the sauce dripped out the side onto the floor.

"Do you want to try?" His eye lights looked from the poorly put together taco his bony lips pressing together before he gives a slow nod.

You took a breath and stepped to the iron feeding door. It had a been built so nothing could pass threw it only be able to open one side at a time. Once you opened it the tray would close on Blues side and open on yours. The tray opened smoothly for you and you placed the taco inside before closing it. The door made a light shuffle as Blue adjusted himself over it and pulled out the taco that appeared on his side.

He examined and flicked his tongue in the air at it making you flinch slightly before he opened his jaws wide. You felt your self freeze as his jaws opened up to such an angle you could easily believe he could eat a small child in the very least. He slipped the taco in and before you could wonder where it even went he snapped his jaws shut and swallowed.

You jumped a little from surprise and fought the urge to run away from the possible child-eating snake. Blues eye lights suddenly went very wide and very blue and turned to you the stars bigger than ever in his eyes. He smashed his face against the glass, pushed the tray back out to you and began pointing to the inside of his mouth. Having a closer view of his sharped teeth however, surprisingly didn't frighten you.

He had teeth. Not really fangs at all.

You giggled a little and Blue seemed to examine your face for a moment before blushing and putting his hand back down.

"I guess you want more right?"

He nodded eagerly at you.

"Well, I guess that's the **Fangs** I get."

Blues eye sockets suddenly went wide and dark at you. In an almost comical way, he began to silently scream being sure to look away from you as he did so. Your not sure what brought this on but you could only assume he hated the joke.

You smiled fondly at him as he had his tantrum before you looked at the rest of your tacos. Blue hadn't eaten for a while and one taco wasn't going to help him too much in the long run. You picked up the bag and dropped what remained into the feed tray before closing it. You could eat when you got home.


	3. A lack of light

I had a pretty bad cold over the week but it gave me time to write this. This chapter might be pretty boring though its' mostly shows just how bad her fear is. Also starts to show feeling for one another despite them not knowing one another very long. Its also preparing to let you know how the world sees Nags. Hopefully, it's not too bad... She also gets a little more solidified in Blue being a person and not some mindless monster... no pun intended.

* * *

Sylvia didn't know how she did it but she did. Her nerves were still pounding away at her from being so close to the giant snake-like person but was having a hard time pulling herself away from the blue star-eyed skeleton that had warmed up to her.

It seemed the skeleton had caught on that there were slivers of him she found frightfull and he restricted himself to try and keep her calm.

He had stuck out a forked tongue that not only paralyzed Sylvia in fear but caused her to fall out of the chair onto the floor making her twitch from the glowing tongue.

He hadn't stuck his tongue out once since Syliva had assured him that she was okay.

After he had eaten the rest of her taco's he was looking around for more. Sylvia gave him a sad look and began to pull at the sleeves of her uniform her eyes dragging along the tiles on the floor. She bit her lip before looking at Blue.

He was so hungry from not eating for so long.

She sighed. She should have known it wouldn't have been enough to fill him up. He was a pretty big naga she had to assume since there was no information on any other Nagas that she knew of. A saltwater crocodile was bigger than her and could eat a whole gazelle and that was about the same size as her.

Blue was definitely bigger than a saltwater crocodile, as long as you included the giant glowing tail.

But, she was out of Tacos. Which meant the only thing she could feed now was... past the snake exhibits. She felt a cold chill crawl over her back and resisted the urge to start biting her nails in front of Blue who was still staring at her waiting for her to do something.

Her eye looked up to see he was giving her a concerned look tilting his head trying to figure out what was wrong.

She sighed, again. She needed to suck it up. She didn't know what it was like to starve but she could imagine it was unpleasant, to say the least.

"Okay...okay, I can do this. I can do this." She looked away from Blue her lack of nails digging gently into the plastic of her chair. It felt as if her legs were cement and the idea of moving towards the snake exhibit had her clinging to the chair below her butt. She pulled her hands away from the chair and began wringing her wrist instead.

Forcefully she made her self stand her legs not feeling any lighter as she shuffled them forward. She looked back at Blue the concern and confusion on his face were obvious. How had no one thought of him as a person with a look like that, she would never understand.

"Okay, Blue, Ummm..." Deep breaths, deep breaths.

"Um, I'm going to go and get you more food. I'll be back as- as s-soon as I can. It...will probably take longer than last time, but ill...be..back... okay?" She had nervously stuttered out the words to the blue Naga his confused look on his face stronger than it was before. Slowly he nodded his head at her and gave her a thumbs up.

Sylvia felt her cheeks heat despite the confused look he had on he was trying to encourage her in some way. She wasn't sure if it was for her to get his food or if it was to encourage her to... just make her feel more confident. It may not have been his intention but the small gesture had made her legs feel less like cement and more like she had bags of rocks tied to her legs instead. The fear was less overwhelming than before.

"Thank you, Blue." She gave a small smile and was able to open the door to the rest of the zoo not noticing the small blue blush that ran over the nagas cheekbones as she exited. Once the door closed behind her Blue began to wring his hands together.

His eye-lights followed her out the door and even when it closed he continued to watch it waiting for her to return. A smile pulled at his cheeks but the small heat he felt in his stomach left him feeling nervous.

.

.

.

.

.

Outside Sylvia let the door fall close gently and click from the pressure. Her heart was racing now that Blue wasn't nearby encouraging her the panic was snaking back up her legs.

Ha, snaking.

God, she couldn't do this.

Her legs trembled as she leaned her weight on the wall and slid down it. She couldn't even figure out how he had removed her fear, partly anyway. The blue-eyed creature calmed her and even when she saw his tongue she didn't freak out as badly as she had before.

She thought about him when he was eating the tacos she had frozen, sure, but she hadn't screamed like she normally would have.

A warm feeling in her legs made her look down on the wooden floor. One of her socks was pulled up higher than the other. She reached to pull her sock up so they were even with one another but paused.

Her eyes stayed on the sock that was hiding a source of her pain. She had been afraid of snakes before but the injury made it impossible to ignore her fears and be brave. She hesitated before pulling down the taller sock to reveal a scar over her ankle.

She gently traced the scar left by puncture wounds of her nightmare. All her experience with snakes had been tragic in one form or another. The one that left the scar sealed her fear of the scaled creature forever in her mind. Sighing she pulled her socks back up till they were both even with one another again.

Blue wasn't a snake just snake-like in a physical form. He was a person, a scared, alone, over-excitable person. He didn't kill anyone and he was not responsible for the scar on your ankle. Truth, it wasn't even the snakes fault for that, it was freakin Mark. That ass had been responsible for the tank falling over but he never took the fall for it.

Sylvia clenched her teeth. It wouldn't do her any good to keep thinking about him or the incident. She needed to move on as best as she could even if she was in denial for the whole thing.

There was a Blue star-eyed skeleton Naga that needed her help.

She can do this. Just to help a starving person stuck in a bulletproof glass cage with no way out till her boss got there.

It was practically a civic duty and she _needed_ to do this.

Her legs still heavy she forced her self up and headed to the snake exhibit being sure to keep her head down the entire way. She had waLked the path before to get to the turtles but this time she was going in deeper than before.

She tried to push the idea of the snakes out of her mind focus on how happy Blue would be when she brought him back something he could eat. Even if they were just dead frozen mice, rats and whatever other critters they fed the scaled monsters.

She reached the doors she had hoped never to enter and took a quick glance up to be sure she had the right exhibit and immediately regretted it. Her head went back to looking at the ground so fast she thought she might puke. The sign had been decorated with a colorful boa constrictor had nearly made her blackout then and there.

Yeah, she was in the right place.

Her heart was already racing but it felt like it was knocking at her chest now and her breathing became inconsistent. She could feel the sweat making her palms sticky as she grasped the metal knob to the exhibit. She took a deep breath and yanked the door open throwing herself inside.

The darkness surrounded her it gave her a sort of comfort. She couldn't hear or even see the snakes around her and she felt a small pinch of relief until her brain reminded her that just because she couldn't see them didn't mean they weren't there.

It's not so bad. It's not so bad, it'll be okay. Nothing to worry about even if there snakes in here there in tanks and glass between me and them.

Not that it stopped the snake last time.

She shivered pushing the memory away. She needed to get Blue more food and fast she wasn't sure how much longer she could stand to be in this place. Her first few steps seemed easy till she collided with another set of doors. She nearly slapped her glasses off her face remembering she was still in the entryway of the exhibits. All the exhibits had entryways and all the doors remained closed in case an animal did manage to escape.

Hopefully, that was not the case for snakes.

She gripped the handles and pulled. A dim emergency light lit the area up red and she could see a few other lights lining the walls. These lights weren't' emergency though.

These were lights in the exhibits. Sylvia turned her eyes down to the floor. It made sense they would leave lights on for the snakes especially heat lamps a lot of other reptiles Sylvia took care of had the same setups in their tanks. She just needed to get to the end of the exhibit, find the room they store the food in, and leave. Simple.

Keeping her eyes on the floor in front of her she became walking down the hallway only on occasion looking at a tank she accidentally wandered to close too. She knew there was a snake or two in them but often it only turned out to be a branch in the form of a snake. She didn't keep her eyes on the tanks for long fearing she would see the real deal and freeze on the spot.

A low hiss to her right made her feet stop and shake. Her breath started to come out in quick shorts bursts. She gripped her arms across her chest her nails digging into the skin.

Don't look at it, it'll only make it worse.

A nagging feeling in her head told her to look, a deep feeling of self-preservation trying to override her thinking. She knew if she did see the snake in the tank next to her that would be it. She would black out her on the floor surrounded by her worst fears. She either spend the night in here having the worst nightmares imaginable just be being this close or she might find herself in a panic attack in the nearest closet till somebody found her.

She swallowed and ignored the instinct to look over at it. Her feet slowly moving as her body realized nothing was happening to her, that she was fine. A brief glance up let her know she was almost there her breathing slowed as she concentrated on moving her feet one foot in front of the other.

Finally, she found the area for employees only and turned down the hallway. Hers glancing up till she found the door she was looking for and opened it. It shut behind her gently as she leaned on it trying to steady her breathing. She let herself slide to the floor her ankle giving off a familiar burning sensation. The doctors had told her it was ghost pain, the pain she remembered when she was bitten.

She sighed. She didn't even really have nails. She was always biting them off once she felt they had become too long. It worked out better for her in the long run since this wasn't the first time she scratched herself. Had her nails been longer or even really existed she might have been taking trips to the doctors.

The light blood on her was already dried and carefully she flacked it off with some light scratching. She pulled her sleeves down and rolled them over the wounds maybe no one would notice. She did the same with her ankle and rolled the sock up.

She stood and took in her surroundings. She had been in employee sections but they were always a little different from one another. This area looked vastly different too what she was used to though. Taking her hand she traced the wall near the door looking for the light switch. She might not have needed it usually already knowing where everything was but the shadows in the room left her imagination run a little wild. The images didn't look like snakes but she also couldn't figure out what there were at all.

Her hand felt a little bit of hard plastic and flipped it up. The room lit with light and she nearly choked. There were tubs filled every way in the room lining the wall. She didn't need her glasses to see the writing on them.

_**Live Snakes.**_

This is where they kept the extras or if they wanted to breed the scaled horrors. She felt the air in her lungs try to choke her. Panic, she opened the door and slammed it behind her leaning on the door. Those snakes were so close to her. It was entirely possible for one to escape it plastic prison. One stupid person was all it would take. Someone who didn't slide the door all the way closed or a smaller snake to wiggle itself just right and pop the whole thing open.

Why would someone allow them to be there the dangers of one... She felt stupid. In her panic, she had forgotten what she learned in college. The venomous snakes weren't kept in the plastic containers like those. The chances of one breaking out and hurting someone was to great a risk to use those.

Those containers while still filled with snakes were not venomous. She felt light-headed and stupid. She was glad no one was around to see her make such a blunder. Especially Mark.

He would never let it go.

With the threat of snakes being on the loose Sylvia opened the door anyway and quickly made her way over to the stock list. She lifted it off the door and examined it. There were some rats that were defrosted in the fridge and live rats they had planned to feed Blue the following morning.

Looks like the normal snakes would get to eat a live meal and Blue would take their food. She would have to explain why the dead rats were missing and not the live ones to the staff tomorrow. Not that anyone should complain about it. They seemed to enjoy feeding live prey to there assigned duties. A shiver went up her spine.

Lucida knew some reptiles that preferred live prey too but couldn't stand to watch the gruesome outcomes.

The rest of her trip was uneventful. She grabbed the dead rats from the defroster poking them to make sure they were no longer cold and threw them into a sack. She turned off the lights and closed the door behind her making her way threw the exhibit. Luckily not a single snake made a noise as she left.

Once outside she took off running towards Blues exhibit. Slowing down as she passed the entrance and looked down. There was a lack of light around her but she felt oddly calm. She had never looked up before afraid to see the dreaded posters of the naga on the wall. Since meeting blue she felt no longer afraid to look at them.

However, it didn't mean she was happy with it either. The poster was of Blue but the expression on his face was one he'd never worn before. The artist of these posters had tried there hardest to make blue look as fierce as the monsters that haunted her waking dreams. His eye sockets had been narrowed and his mouth was wide open. She would have been afraid but the way his mouth had been drawn to look like it was about to eat her was in fact comical.

Blue didn't look like that when he ate the tacos. They didn't know what he looked like when he ate at all. They had simply drawn what they thought he would look like.

Sylvia gave a small smile. Blue was special.

The world was trying to tell people that this was what he was supposed to be like, well there were wrong. Blue was nothing like that.

Sylvia felt her cheeks heat up. When had she become too attached to someone she knew so little about. He said he didn't eat live food and he had been given plenty to try. Still, he remained neutral to it.

No one would starve themselves willingly unless morals came into play.

Sylvia looked up at the poster again. That was the difference between animals and humans wasn't it?

Morals. Only humans had it.

Blue wasn't human, not by a long shot. He did, however, have morals. She wasn't helping some animal or even a creature written by some horror movie artist. She was helping a human, one who just didn't look like it. She looked at the bag of rats in her hand.

Edible by humans but definitely not the first choice she would have had for herself. Tomorrow after she gets him out of the cage she was going to make him some more Tacos.


	4. Sticks, glass, bones, and tails

I know your all wondering where is Stretch. I promise he's alive. It's all I'm gonna tell you for now.

Your all lucky I'm still sick. Otherwise, this chapter probably wouldn't be out of this soon. I'm trying to make each chapter have a 3,000-word limit minimum.

Also, I hate it when somebody takes there the main character and makes them perfect. Like physically perfect. Like a voluptuous woman who stepped out of some supermodel magazine as their main character. How is this relatable? Can anyone on here claim to be a supermodel? Note that this does work in some stories but it bugs me cause it doesn't work in most. If you make them a model then cause what you got to give them a lot more problems, relatable problems, to make believe that it's possible.

In my head and in my character's head she's not beautiful. That doesn't mean that giant skeleton snakes aren't going to see her as beautiful though. So take the flaws and change them into something perceived as beautiful especially with love interest.

Also off subject if anyone interested in being my editor that would be great. I often feel I need to use different words to try and get what I want the reader to feel across and I just feel like I lack the correct choice of words. For example if someone says:

"That dude has a stiffy." It just sounds funny.

But if they say: "That dude has a hard-on." It doesn't sound as funny even if they both mean the same thing.

okay, that's my rant, for now, I'm done. On to the story.

* * *

Sylvia had spent the entire night with Blue. She dumped the bag with rats in it and all and let him sort threw them. He seemed a little disappointed but didn't refuse them and swallowed them whole much to Sylvia's dislike. She had to advert her eyes every time he opened his mouth. Blue got threw half the bag before tapping on the glass to let her know he was done.

She let him keep the bag in case he got hungry for more but promised him she would bring him more tacos. He had grinned so wide she thought he might break his skull if she hadn't seen how wide his mouth could open.

While waiting for the morning she spent the night talking to Blue. She wasn't sure whether Blue could talk or not the glass was too thick to hear him and she wondered how he was able to understand her. He didn't have ears but if he was like a snake than there was a good chance he was relying on vibrations to hear.

"So we have a few hours till morning before comes in. He's my boss. He a nice guy so you'll probably like him. Of course uh...he's also Marks uncle." Blue's face looked like he had swallowed something distasteful.

"Really, he's a nice guy. Not like Mark at all... He gave me this job...when no one else would. No one wants to hire someone who has a herpetology degree and cant work with snakes." Sylvia looked down and starting picking at her nails. They were short enough already but her mother wasn't here to tell her to stop. Blue simply nodded his head and smiled at her.

There was a pregnant pause between them and Sylvia started to grip her chair. What was she supposed to talk about now? There were a lot of questions she wanted to ask him but what if she came off as rude to him? Would he even be able to answer her? Sylvia stared at his tail. She wanted to ask about the blue shading. Was it bioluminescent like a fish or did it glow for another reason?

Sylvia jumped back when the tail was suddenly in her face threw the glass. Her chair toppled over from her jump she hadn't been expecting Blue to shove his tail in her face again after last time. He smiled eagerly at her like showing her his tail was a compliment. It was strange he no longer donned the blue blush from before. Instead, he wrapped his arms around the middle of his tail and held it up to her as if presenting it as a present.

"Uh, Your uh, not so shy now?" There it was. At her question, the blue light showed up on his cheeks but he only held his tail higher to her. She went closer to the tank her arms held a slight shake to them from the sudden movement before but her heart rate was already slowing in her chest bringing her back to a calm steady feeling.

The blue lighting of his tail gave off a soothing feeling and Sylvia was able to approach him more calmly. Slowly she rested her fingertips on the glass and leaned in. The scales remained about the same size around but grew to a bigger sized scaled the closer they got to Blue skeletal body and smalled towards his tail. Lizards and reptiles both had that in similarities but it seemed a Naga would too. The pattern despite it being Blue was so familiar to her.

Her eye glanced back to Blue who seemed to be cuddling himself until he noticed her looking toward him and perked up. That part was not familiar but the way his tail was seemed to trudge up something from her memories.

"Hey, what do you think of this one?" A snake was held out to the child its smooth scales flat till it created a pattern near its head. The head of the snake had such a funny shape to it the girl giggled.

"Dad, its face looks like a pig." she kept giggling but took the snake carefully from the man. The man snorted but leaned closer to the child his green eyes meeting her hers and gently smile tried not to break into a snort at the girl's words.

"Well, this snake does have a square snot so I can see it. But, ya know it might be insulting to a snake to call it a pig." With that, the man did laugh. The girl didn't get the joke but kept holding the snake. its tongue flicking out at her from time to time but remained still in her hands. He reached down gently and the girl placed it back in his hands as he put it into a tank nearby.

"This one's called a Pygmy wolf snake. It's from a very small part of Africa and it has some back fangs."

"It has fangs and you let me touch it!" He chuckles softly.

"There venom isn't dangerous to us. Sides this guy clearly likes you didn't bite once." The girl smiles making her eyes sparkle in excitement. She leaned against her father as he continued to show her the reptiles around the room.

Sylvia let out a shaky breath. She had forgotten that a long time ago. She began to rub her head and eyes hoping Blue wouldn't notice how glossed over they probably looked.

Tapping from the glass took her mind off it right away to see Blue staring at her, hand on the glass, his smile gone and he was no longer clinging to his tail.

"S-sorry Blue, just memories. Your... your tail reminded me of a pygmy wolf snake for some reason." His face contorted and eyes narrowed if the crease near his brow hadn't been there she would have thought he was angry at her instead of worried. His eye lights look to the ground and his hand grips the bottom of his chin in thought. Sylvia isn't sure what he was thinking about but with the look of concentration, she decides not to bug him till he was ready to tell her, as much as a game of charades can anyway.

Sylvia reaches over to pick up the chair she knocked over Blue stayed lost in thought until he heard the chair scrape across the floor. Sylvia looked up to see him staring at her again no smile, no star eye lights, just a curious and almost sad look on his face. She placed the chair back down in front of the glass and took her seat as Blue pressed his face against the glass. Sylvia's eyes started to drift back to his tail but the movement caught her eye and she was back to staring at Blue in the face.

Just for a moment, she thought she saw his mouth moving. She didn't hear anything besides the quiet buzzing of the lights above her the room it's earthly blue and green colors reminding her of a child's room.

After a lack of shuteye, running to get Tacos from the break room and rats from the nightmare hall her body was starting to relax making her feel more tired than she did when she woke. She wasn't ready to fall asleep quite yet, not with her new friend in a glass cage next to her anyway. When was the last time she called anyone a friend or even thought of them that way, she really couldn't recall having much of any friends. She seemed to always get the short end of the stick. Even in her college dorm room, her partner had been nice but neither of them found much interest in the other. Maybe it was because her dorm mate had been more of a material girl than she was. She had always dressed in fancy expensive clothes or when she wasn't doing her homework was painting her toenails some bright color on her bed.

Blue didn't have nails so he probably was never going to paint his nails. Sylvias eyes located Blue hands and sure enough no nails. The last digits dig curl out a bit with sharp points on the end, claws perhaps.

Blues eyes sockets were beginning to droop as well as her own but he gave a soft smile as he curled up near the glass. She returned the smile and leaned on glass close to him as he let out a yawn. She had expected the glass to be cold but felt a gentle warm buzz on her back from it, Blue let out one more yawn and closed his eyes. Sylvia tried to stay awake and watch Blue but soon drifted off to her slumberland.

.

.

.

Blue opened his eyes to look at the human who had fallen asleep next to his tank. Blue was Smarter than what most would give him credit for and luring a human to sleep, especially since she seemed to need it was the lest he could do for her.

It also gave him the ability to study her more without scaring her.

He watched her chest rise and fall to her light steady breathing. This human was unusual from other humans he had met. No one could hear him from inside the tank and no one tired too. When Mark had first come into the room he had practically pummeled the glass hoping he would understand. The man had only flinched and laughed at him before shining a bright light from a flashlight into his eye sockets.

Didn't he know Blue's eyes-lights were sensitive to light?

Sylvia could understand him even without words.

He needed to check her, but he can't do it threw the glass.

She was a kind human but there were other questionable things about her. Her ability to understand him for one even with the games of charades they played she was able to get to the answers quicker than most.

Like an invisible force pointing her in the right direction, strong instincts humans didn't normally have.

Saying Blue was overexcited was still an understatement. He was patient but if he could find out now rather than later it might make things easier.

He eyed the metal door Sylvia used to deliver food to him. He could probably pry it open just enough to check her but...

She had been kind to him and even fed him those delicious tacos. He had felt guilty when he realized she gave up her whole lunch to him besides the one taco she had eaten to show him it was edible. She had been grossed out by the rats he knew but she had wanted to make sure he full and happy. Even a kind human may have not gone that far, would they?

Blue sighed he couldn't betray her trust like that, Check her without her permission. He eyed the metal door again and flicked his tongue into the air. He couldn't sense anything on this side of the glass he could only understand what she said because of the light vibration that was sent threw the walls and metal door. The glass separated him from the world better than a mountain of rocks did. He couldn't' test the air when she was awake either due to her panic.

He tasted the air again. Moisture and mildew from the rocks around him.

Another flick of his tongue. Something dry and earthy.

Flick. The taco stains attached to the paper bag she carried them in.

Blue grabbed the bag and brought it to his face. It had been in her possession the longest. He flicked his tongue out again at the bag trying to pick up anything different.

Had her scent been on it, it was gone now.

The burlap bag with the rats had too many scents for him to be able to sort threw without knowing which one was hers. Not to mention the scent of the rats overwhelmed the scent of the bag itself.

Blue huffed and crossed his arms. This wouldn't do.

He was the magnificent Blue and nothing was gonna stop him from finding out the riddle of this human. He let out one of his proud 'MWEH HEH HEH' laughs before blushing and looking at the still sleeping human. Blue didn't forget that she couldn't hear him he was only testing to make sure she couldn't hear him.

He pumped his fist and smiled he was determined to figure it out. He eyed the metal tray again. He wouldn't check her, but he should be able to get a hint of her scent this way.

Blue lowers himself to the tray and reaches inside to try and push on the door but it catches on the bones of his arm and refuses to open wide enough for him to get close enough. He needed something thinner to get the angle right. He leans back out and looks around the stalagmites might work if they were thinner or if his habitat had a stick... He looked over to the cave's opening. It was the section he avoided.

That was the part where the cave ended and it opened up to a room full of fake trees and a small pool of water he couldn't bath in properly due to its size. He avoided due to the fact there was a giant see-through glass window that a ton of people stayed on the other side ogling his naked form. Who knew that humans were such perverts maybe this it why Stretch had told him to stay away from people.

Blue sighed he missed his brother.

A small thump caught Blue attention and turned in Sylvia's direction. She had rolled in her chair by a few degrees forgetting that she wasn't in her bed somewhere. Blue stared at her a moment wishing he could curl around her so she wouldn't topple to the floor. He blushed thinking about it for a moment before he shook his head of the strange prospect.

He hadn't thought about how uncomfortable the chair would be for her to sleep in. Now that she was moving in her seat it was only a matter of time before she fell out of the chair. Blue needed to hurry and wake her up before she hurt herself.

He slithered to the front of his cave and paused just outside of it wondering how many people were going to be staring at him this time. He shook his head it didn't matter he needed to get a stick. He pushed forward into a dimly lit room where the window was darkened on the other side. He hadn't needed to worry at all, there was nobody here. He smiled excited knowing that there weren't a bunch of people staring at him and pointing or making faces at him threw the glass.

Sylvia had stared at him too didn't she?

Blue paused thinking about how her eyes didn't leave his tail. She had stared at him, but he didn't feel offended by it. Her stares were more of a curiosity than anything else. The stares of the people from beyond the glass had made him feel dejected, uncomfortable, and oddly enough as if he shouldn't exist. Like a made-up fantasy from some story about a monster hiding under the bed. If people weren't looking at him in a curious disgust then they were looking at him in a curious fearful way.

It made the thin tip of his tail curl.

She didn't look at him like that. Sure she had been afraid of him but her fear had been just that. The curious part wasn't there, she was just purely afraid of him. Seeing it in her face had made him feel afraid for her. It had been why he had tried to calm her, to look as unintimidating as possible.

He had been worried it wouldn't work but it did, and he was grateful to finally have a friend.

Blue turned back into the cave and made his way over to the metal door.

That's' what she was right? A friend now. She only looked at him in curiosity, no anger, and no fear... for the most part.

He stuck the stick in the metal bin and tried to push the door open enough to get a scent. He leaned into getting his head right next to the window.

He looked up to make sure she was still sleeping. She was, her head slightly smushed against the window right up against where his face would be.

He ceased and almost dropped the stick he had. He had spent so much time observing her facial expression he did actually observe the details of her face. He had only noted she was taller than most human females he had seen. Taking in her appearance now he noted other intense changes from other humans. The shape of her head stayed about the same but what caught him was the patterns on her skin. From a distance, they looked to be some sort of skin disorder but up close he felt lured to her.

Freckles. He had seen freckles on humans before usually younger children on the other side of the glass but on this woman...

When he and Stretch broke free of the mountain it had been night time and the sky had been littered with stars. Stretch and he stared at them for what felt like hours they were beautiful.

The same shape of those stars littered her skin everywhere. Blue stopped trying to push the door with the stick and just stared at her skin. The pattern was different from the sky but it made him think of another constellation far away from here.

He wondered briefly if she would let him touch one. He blushed again.

He back away from the glass hastily, the stick slipping from his grip. What was he thinking?

Blue could feel his face heating up and his coils rolled as if they couldn't figure out where they wanted to settle. He pulled his tail to him like it would purge his mind of the unfamiliar thoughts. He glanced at Sylvia again the stick, still sticking out of the metal tray.

Irritated he stared at the stick. Stretch would have made a pun for sure...

This wasn't supposed to be hard. He was the Magnificant Blue and he would figure out the human first and then his strange thoughts after.

Blue strolled over to the stick and began to push frantically at the door. There was a creak and Blue pushed a little harder he could almost-CRACK!

Blue pulled the stick out, it was now half the size he needed it, the twig had shards of wood bent in different areas and the other half of it hung limply from some tree bark that stayed attached. The stick was too weak to push the heavy metal door open. He needed something else. Thin, but strong enough to resist the heavy metal.

He curled himself up and stared at the human sleeping uncomfortable by the way she was squirming in her chair.

He brought his tail up to scratch the top of his head, thinking. Long, thin, and strong.

He stared at the tip of his tail. It only took him about five seconds when he realized the answer was literally in front of him.

He jabbed the end of his tail into the metal container without hesitation and pushed. He moved his head in as close as he could to get the door open on both sides it didn't leave much room without smashing his tail.

Pulling his face as close to the opening as he could he flick his tongue out.

Honeysuckle, a hint of cinnamon, something that reminded blue of the forest and a strong scent of dew after it rains.

It was an odd combination but...

Blues bones felt like there were electrocuted his own tail brightened like he ate a lightbulb. He pulled his tail out quickly and backed away from the metal tray. It closed with a quiet clink.

He stared at Sylvia. Her scent.

He swallowed what felt like a lump in his throat his cheeks heating up more than they ever did before and an almost violent shudder ran up his spine. He moved closer to the tank window and looked at her. The stars on her skin and hair that made him think of a fire. He imagined she was soft to the touch, unlike his bones. Would she be softer than the ecto flesh of his tail? He wanted to know but... he wanted her permission first to touch. Even if the glass wasn't there.

The thoughts he had before and the reason behind it was starting to dawn on him.

He really wished Stretch was here. He couldn't remember anything on how to properly mate someone. There hadn't been anyone around to mate before.

Sylvia shifted in her sleep again and he watched her curl in on herself to get more comfortable.

He had never met a medusa before.


	5. Fail

Your all lucky I'm sick. Otherwise, my hours at work would be in play here instead. I wish the coughing would stop though I wanna breathe. Two chapters in two days, i feel...well sick mostly.

Fanfiction weird. I tried to type in Mr. Cook as one word and it just deletes it for some reason. Fanfiction you need to get with the program. Archive of our own going to beat you down at this rate once there more open to everyone. :P

Seriously I shouldn't have to worry about words disappearing. I think his name was in the last chapter and now... I bet it's not there.

* * *

When Sylvia woke up her back was sore and her face was stuck to the glass of the tank. She pulled away wiping her mouth of the now dry drool thanking god that nobody had seen her do that. She glanced around the blue-green room trying to remember where she was before she noticed the glow of a bright blue tail next to her. Blue skeleton face was relaxed near her small puffs of breath from him made a foggy part on the glass whenever he breathed out.

Sylvia held her breath. She wasn't sure how but this skeleton was truly adorable it showed even more now than it did before when he was awake. His sockets were closed over with what seemed like very mailable but smooth white clay. His cheeks were pulled up at the corners making him smile even in his sleep. The top half of him was nuzzled down between the glass and his tail. The majority of his tail was wrapped in a circular pattern almost made out to look like a bowl of coils. He stirred closer to his tail and rubbed against the glass.

Sylvia couldn't help but put a smile on her face at his cute antics.

Gently she tapped the glass. He stirred slightly but nestled back into his tail. She would let him sleep it seemed he needed it. She stood from the chair but used it to keep her balance if she could help it she would never sleep in a chair like that again. She should have slept on the floor instead. Cold but her back would hurt less. She stood straight parted her legs a little and leaned back hoping to get her back to pop back in place. A smooth creak of bones and a relief of pressure granted her just that.

She straightened herself back out and jumped a little. Blue was staring at her a blue blush covered his face and she wondered how he was doing that.

"Morning Blue." She gave a small smile but Blues face just got brighter before he seemed to remember she was there and gave a small wave. The blush faded from his face and he pointed enthusiastically at the door keeping him inside the cage.

She swallowed down a laugh."Yep, if Mr. Cook is here I'm gonna go talk to him since he's got the password and all. Will you be okay for a little while?"

Blue nodded his head quickly almost trembling in his excitement. Sylvia gave a quick nod and opened the door to leave but not before letting Blue know she would be back as soon as she could.

She closed the door behind her and starting walking to his office near the front gates of the zoo. The sun was just starting to come up and she could look out to the large lake that housed their American alligators. The yellow and reds of the sun gleamed off the water the gators mostly still asleep due to the cooler weather of the morning.

It was a beautiful morning and Blue could share it with her once she got him out. She found herself humming an unknown tune and picking up her pace to get to his office. She knew she wasn't supposed to run but, what the heck. Why not?

She dashed passed some of the security guards getting off and on their shifts giving her a strange look and passed some of her co-zoo keepers sharing similar looks before shrugging it off and ignoring her. It didn't bother her that they thought she was weird and it didn't matter since Blue would share in her excitement anyway.

She turned the corner near the small mammals' exhibits when she saw Mr. Cook just pulling out his key to enter his office. She shouted his name causing him to fumble with his key before turning to her.

He wasn't' a fit man with a protruding beer gut and most of his hair had either fallen out or turned grey with his old age but he was an understanding man. Often giving people more vacation time when they needed it or just tips and advice: given freely. Sometimes even when they didn't need it.

Sylvia rushed to stand next to him while he gave her a surprised look. "Mr. Cook, I Have to talk to you about Blue right away."

"Oh?" He questioned before sliding the key into the door and unlocking it. He stepped inside holding the door open like a gentleman so Sylvia could join him. The room just opened but she could feel the cold of the air condition meeting the cold chill of the morning. She found herself gripping her arms trying to keep her self warm. Mr. Cook, however, seemed obvious to the chill of the room and took a seat at the desk. The chair groaned under him as he adjusted to get comfortable. His eyes flickered over to Sylvia practically bouncing in her chair made him raise a brow at her.

"You seem to be in a good mood this morning Miss Draco. I take it the night with the Naga went well?" He adjusted his tye and leaned back in his chair an amused smile on his face.

"Yes, it went really well with Blue but..." She hadn't fully thought this through. How is she suppose to tell Mr. Cook there newly acquired Naga was sentient and needed to be uncaged?

"Who's Blue? Miss Draco." The question threw her off.

"Ehh, Blue is...the Naga." Of course, he didn't know he hadn't met blue yet.

"Ah, I thought he was named Scales." Mr. Cook rubbed his chin his eyebrows furrowed together and he stared at the ceiling as if trying to remember.

"Oh, uh, I mean I think that's what the administrators decided to call him, but Blue says his name is Blue." He frowned and began to rub his chin.

"He...told you?" His voice trailed off a little as he spoke.

"Yes, I mean, not in words or anything... it, um was a long night of charades."

"Charades?"

"Er, yes." Great that's what she wanted him to think she was crazy.

"Right, are you well Miss Draco? I heard from Mark about the incident at school and that why I decided to put you in charge of the Naga while Mark is on vacation. He assured me that time spent might help you get over your fear." He smiled at her concern still showing on his face.

Fuck, this was Mark's idea to torment her again? Jokes on him it didn't work. She must have shown her dislike on her face because Mr. Cook continued. "Yes, Mark. He told me about the incident at college with the pit viper. A rattlesnake wasn't it?"

"Er, yes sir."

"He said it shook you up pretty bad. He mentioned you were afraid of snakes before that, so I assume the incident didn't help with that."

"No, it uh, didn't sir." Sylvia felt the cold more than she did when she had entered the room she really didn't want to have this discussion.

"So, then uh, Blue you said. You're not afraid of him?" She shook her head reminding herself there was a reason she was here.

"Blue's not a snake though. He sentient and he understands, and he eats tacos!"

"You got him to eat. That's impressive, although I'm not sure tacos should be on a list of healthy foods for uh any snake-like creature to eat."

"But he's not a snake." Mr. Cook stares at her his brow wrinkles into a worried expression.

"He's undoubtedly is a snake of some sort miss Draco. Are you well?" Sylvia feels a little dizzy and her stomach churns. Why wasn't he listening to her?

"Yes, I-I'm fine. Mr. Cook, you need to see Blue. He's sentient, he's... he's a person Mr. Cook. We, we cant' keep him locked up like this." Mr. Cooks's eyebrows raise before he lets out a bark of laughter.

"Mark has mentioned that uh, this Naga has some very smart notable features miss Draco but has assured me he is an animal like the rest just with slightly higher intelligence. Like a primate." He didn't believe her.

"Mr. Cook, please. If you just go and meet him you'll see he's not just of high intelligence he's a person. We can't keep him locked in a cage." He let out a gruff snort and shook his head.

"Miss Draco. I know your good at your job but..." He paused and looked out the window. Sylvia felt frozen to her seat. "Since you work here at the zoo, were also aware of your brother's beliefs when it comes to animals."

Sylvia hadn't talked to her brother since... dad. She only heard about it from the occasional call from mom. It amazed her sometimes that he wasn't in jail yet.

"My brother... what...what does this have to do with my brother?" Mr. Cook regarded her cooly before he sighed and turned on his computer.

"You are aware of your brother's deeds, right? Since your related, we were automatically informed when we hired you on here at the zoo. Your brother isn't exactly someone we would want here and if you go rambling off on letting animals out of there cages like that... it won't look good for you or our business. Miss Draco, I know you have no intention of being like your brother you've been here with us for a good three years and we've never had a problem with you aside from the fear of sna-"

"I am aware of my brother's doings. It has nothing to do with that though. Blue isn't some intelligent animal like a monkey or some dolphin, he's a person. With bones and a tail but still a person, we cant' keep him locked up like a criminal."

Mr. Cooks's eyebrows narrowed disapprovingly. "Miss Draco, please keep in mind this is a professional workplace. Mark may pull strings for you but it doesn't give-"

"What? What strings?"

Mr. Cook had turned from his computer and gave her a slack expression.

"It was his idea to hire you here. Had he not recommended you to us your file probably would have been looked over."

He.

Mark.

The asshole.

Why would he?

"Wha?" Was the only thing you managed to push threw your mouth.

"I thought you knew, Miss Draco. Mark suggested you and said you were top of the class despite the fear of snakes. I suppose the boy felt pity as well because of what happened between you and your professor and well the snake."

It hadn't been the professor's fault at all. It was Marks' fault!

"I, he... It has nothing to do with Blue." Her voice dropped he wasn't believing her. He would rather believe Mark and that she wasn't mentally stable.

"Miss Draco, please. I do have work I have to do. If you need some time away or if the Naga was too much I can find a replacement." He hadn't offered a replacement before when she asked but now that he was thinking she was losing it he was going to find someone else?

"I...no, I'm fine." He stared at her hiding his mouth behind his hands leaning his elbows on the desk. His face seemed sterned but he sighed and leaned back and started typing on his computer as if ignoring her.

"Very well, if your fine then miss Draco you can go. No more taco's for the Naga, please. Although I guess tacos are better than nothing."

She didn't tell him about the bag of rats and she wasn't going too. If she couldn't get Blue out she was going to owe him a lot of Tacos. She left the office as quietly as she could. This hadn't gone at all like she had thought it would. Mark was the reason she got hired in the first place, why would he do that? Did he realize the incident in college was his fault and actually felt guilty for it or was there another reason for it? Mark's grades had been average and a few even failing. Was it so he could continue to cheat off her in real life? She had managed to get Blue to eat, that alone was more than what Mark had been able to do.

Sylvia walked past the small mammal's enclosure and turned towards the bathrooms. She stepped inside and locked the door before sliding down a wall. What was she suppose to tell Blue? Hey, Blue sorry but I failed to get you out of the cage cause no one believes your a person.

She lowered her chin into her chest and covered her head. Her head began to throb, lack of water, or lack of sleep she didn't know. Her body felt heavy and her thought went to Blue. He would be so disappointed. She didn't want to go back to Blue she didn't want to see expression when she told him the bad news. She curled in on herself and let go as quietly as she could. She didn't want anyone to see her crying like this. She let the tears lose but tried to suppress her wailing.

She did this for about an hour before trying to dry her face in the sink so no one could tell she was crying. She needed to go home and feed Tick-Tock. Her only friend after she tells Blue the bad news.

A ringing in her pocket startles her and she almost slips on the floor. She fumbles pulling it out and reading the i.d.

MOM

It was Wednesday morning Sylvia's day off and the time when her mother always called to check on her. Her breath was shaky but she really wanted to hear her mom's reassuring voice right now. Mom always knew what to do.

Sylvia hit the answer button and held it up to her ear.

"Mom?" Her voice came out shakier than she meant it too and silently scolded her self for not being better at hiding it.

"Sweetie? Are you alright you sound funny? Do you have a cold?" Her voice came out worried but warm just like it usually was.

"Mom. Yeah, no I'm fine, I just...had a bad day."

"What happened, sweetie?"

And like that Sylvia spilled everything to her.

Blue's kindness and enthusiasm, his intellect and how he was clearly a person. How she gave him her tacos and manged to walk thew the snake exhibit to get him the rats. She told her about his amazing glowing tail and how mark had stuffed the file full of snake pictures. She told her how Mr. Cook apparently only hired her because of Mark and how he didn't believe her about Blue.

When Sylvia was finally done she felt exhausted but so much better. Her mother had only asked a few questions in between that hadn't been difficult to answer. The weight on her shoulders felt lighter.

"So what are you gonna do now Sylvia?"

"I-I dunno.'

"Hhmm, well he's your friend right? So your not gonna just leave him in there are you?"

"Well, I mean, umm-"

"Sylvia Jar Draco I did not raise you to abandon your friends like that!"

"But, mom. This is my job. No one wanted to hire me before and the only reason I have this one is apparently because of Mark. They'll fire me for sure not to mention jail time if I succeded and who will take care of Tick-Tock?"

Sylvia could hear her mother sighing and just picture her rubbing her brow. "Sylvia you know I will help you. I can take care of Tick-Tock for you but you need a friend more than anything. A real friend and if he's a real person like you said then he needs your help more than anyone. Especially if no one's listening to him. Perhaps...Perhaps it's time you and your brother bond again?"

"Mom...he-"

"I know has a stick up his ass. Honestly that boy, I can't tell whether your father would be proud or disappointed half the time." Sylvia knew her brother hated her it wasn't news to her.

"Mom, he has ever right-"

"Don't you start that again baby girl. IT. WAS. NOT. YOUR. FAULT. He needs to realize that someday too. What happened to your father was a tragic accident and by no means your fault. Do you understand? I wanna hear it."

"Yes, mom, sorry mom."

"Good girl, now about Blue what are you going to do."

"I really don't know mom, I mean I don't want to leave him here sure but...What you're saying...what you're suggesting, it's so hard." Tears slipped past her eyes again quietly.

"I know. Nothing for you was ever easy though. Not your father's death, not growing up, not college. Sweetie your not the type to be given easy. You weren't raised to take the easy way, you were raised to take the right way. What's your heart telling you?" Sylvia wasn't sure what her heart was telling her honestly. Still, she knew that it was telling her that Blue locked up was wrong and he couldn't stay here.

If she chooses to do this, she wouldn't be able to stay either. Sylvia looks at her phone she knows her mother is waiting for an answer.

"Can-can you ask Norman for me?"

"To ask your brother, to help break an animal who's not an animal out of a prison. Yes, I can do that."

Sylvia's headache got worse. She can't believe she was going to work with her brother to break Blue out of a zoo.

It was even harder to believe that he was a successful animal smuggler.


	6. The plan (part 1)

Spent the night puking I don't think the antibiotics were supposed to do that. But I'm not puking now and I seem to be doing better, so... I guess back to slower updates. Sorry yall.

Oh, but here you go what you were waiting for: STRETCH ;)

only a little, sorry.

I gotta back off on this story a little to finish the horror one I'm still on. I need to rewrite the last chapter since when I started writing that I didn't have a plot. But I promise the chapter that replacing it will be worth it since I realized some of what I did wrong.

Sorry, I didn't quite make the 3,000-word count this time but I plan on working tomorrow whether I'm healthy or not.

* * *

It had taken Sylvia longer than she wanted it to take before she got back to Blue. She hadn't been able to keep half her promise about trying to get back to him as soon as she could.

She hoped the taco's from Taco Bell would help her in that regard she thought as she pulled out of the drive-thru.

Just as she got to a stop sign the phone in the passenger seat of her truck started ringing. She reached keeping her eyes on the light. She had memorized where the buttons on her phone were she swiped to answer and slid it to speaker mode. Not bothering to check who was on the other end.

"Hello?"

"What this about a Naga?" A cold stern voice over the phone assaulted her nervous system making her freeze almost missing the light turning green.

"N-Norman?"

"Yes." His response was cold and frigid. Sylvia could imagine his disgusted his lips pulled up into his infamous sneer.

"J-just checking."

"You don't check when someone is calling you?" Her hands gripped the steering wheel turning on a semi-busy street forcing herself to pay attention to the traffic. Norman would throw a giant party if she died in some terrible painful car accident.

"I do. J-Just not when I'm driving."

"The smartest thing I've ever heard you do." Sweat began forming on her brow and she swallowed trying to pay attention to the road. Norman was the only one to help her now she could feel could help her now. Even when he knew what damage he could do with his words. She wouldn't grin but would bear with it if it made him feel any better.

"You better be serious about this. I refuse to get sent to jail for this cause you're too incompetent." Another sting to her that she wouldn't expresse out loud.

"I...am. He shouldn't be there."

"No animals should be in a zoo. Its been proven to be bad for conservations." He stated it like an obvious fact that she was supposed to know.

"If this is some trick to get me killed. You have another thing coming. Lil' Sis." It sounded as if he had bitten down on his tongue pronouncing, sis like it was taboo.

"Your gonna be doing most of the work." She sighed. She had hope that he would just toss her off the side and do the work without her being involved in anything, but he already knew this would hurt her more, in the long run, getting her hands dirty. She turned at the zoo the security guard giving her a small wave before lifting the rail to let her threw.

She waved back as she answered. "He's not an animal and I know. I just don't know what to do exactly."

"Obviously. There are steps I will tell you and you have time limitations. If you don't complete them you and your friend are shit outta luck."

"I... understand." She turned the car down a dirt path for keepers to use only.

"The first thing you need is a sure way to get him out of his cage. I heard it was a numerical lock so you need the code for it or you need to hack it. We both know your a shitty hacker so don't bother with that. Get the codes and don't get caught."

"Right." She wondered briefly if he had planned on breaking Blue out before this. She couldn't recall telling mom or anyone the lock was numerical.

"You have twenty hours to get it. I'm already packing a truck I'll be there in two days so you better have it by then."

"Only two days?"

"Don't be stupid. I said I'll be there in two days I didn't say I was picking him up in two days. Get a move on. I'll call again in twenty hours." With that, the phone gave a dead humm as she parked her car.

She gripped the steering wheel tightly and clenched her teeth together. She didn't want to start crying again when she was about to visit Blue. What would he think if her face had waterfalls running down her face and snot all over her upper lip? She was ugly, to begin with, but far uglier if she cried and covered her face in an absurd amount of objectionable liquids.

Right now was her time off and she was supposed to be at home taking care of Tick-Tock. She picked at the bag as she got closer to the keeper's entrance it wouldn't be hard to avoid people since most of the time they ignored her anyway. She would go give Blue the tacos and hope that he forgave her for not being able to get him out like she had thought she could.

She would tell him of her plan and maybe, maybe he would forgive her for being foolish enough to trust Mr. Cook.

She wasn't sure what she would do if he didn't. She let out a sigh before going back to stand in front of the back door to Blues feeding room. She took a sigh and opened the door.

"Blue?" As if he was struck by lightning Blue grinned excitedly till he saw the ashamed look on Sylvia's. His face fell too when no one was with her to unlock the door. A small fearful tear fell down Sylvia's cheek and he knew he wasn't getting out of here today. The door behind Sylvia slowly closing with a click confirmed it as he waited patiently for her to explain.

.

.

.

Only about a four miles out of the city a much bigger form than blue stood looking at the tall building from a distance. A roaring highway he could hear coming and going from somewhere in the distance assaulted his non-existent ears. His flared orange eye lights focused on the city in front of him. He took a deep breath it smelled of city air, smoke and pollution he gritted his teeth. Blue was somewhere in this giant mess of stupidly tall buildings and rock with humans walking around.

He closes his eyes for a moment letting his bright massive Orange tail tighten to him in. He was frustrated. He needed to get into the forsaken city. He knew his brother was in there somewhere but couldn't quite pinpoint where. With his size, he would have a hard time maneuvering in the city trying to find him without getting caught.

He needed to be careful.

When Blue had been caught, Stretch practically tore threw the forest looking for him. More humans had come to see what the destruction was about. He had managed to stalk them back to a road and followed them for a while. The vehicles being faster than him eventually left him behind. He followed the road after that. Barely catching glimpses of Blues scent in the air.

When he found the humans holding him hostage they were in for a _**Bad Time. **_

Observing the city even from a distance he could tell it was full of humans.

He observed his surroundings trying to find someplace he could hide before he made a move. Not too far from where he stood his eyes met what looked like an abandoned barn. It would have to do for now until he could sneak in closer to the city.

The barn had seen better days the wood was chipped in more than a few places and paint only existed in small slivers. It Stretch thought a storm was going to hit he probably would have been safer hiding in the city with people. This would have to do for now.

He pulled open the door having a bit of dust fly up into his face as he entered. He pulled the rest of himself inside closing the door behind him and looking around. The barn wasn't much better on the inside. Beams that should have been nailed in place clearly making the place look structurally unsound. A few squeaks let him know that if he was hungry he only needed to search threw the hay pile on the floor for his dinner.

He let out a sigh and curled himself into a pile in the middle of the room. He didn't trust the area to lay about as he liked so he kept his more fragile bones hidden behind his magically enhanced tail. The magic and scales should help protect him better if someone were to try anything with him laying about in there.

If he had been so frustrated with trying to find Blue he might have used this spot more often for naps but he knew as soon as he did find Blue they needed to hide again. Somewhere much further than where the humans were somewhere past the mountain. Would Blue like that? He probably would if he found someplace nicer.

He sighed again. He wasn't as patient as Blue was and wanted nothing more than to go straight into the city but he would need a disguise. There was no way he would be able to hide his tail from humans at all. He would need something big to hide in. The barn was big enough but also very stationary. He wouldn't be able to hide anywhere as he was.

He had to wait for night.

.

.

.

Blue had been taken the news better than Sylvia had given him credit for. At first, he had sat unnaturally still and it made her think maybe he was really upset when he started picking at the tacos she brought. When she mentioned she was going to help break him out of the cage he stopped picking at the taco and starting bouncing around in his cage, blue stars back in his eyes and very faintly she thought she could hear him shouting.

When he was finally done running, er slithering around his tank he was back at the window staring at Sylvia maybe it was something about Nagas but it almost seemed like he didn't need to blink looking at her. It made her shuffle before grabbing the chair from before and sitting in it hoping he didn't notice the blush on her face from his staring.

"Blue look, uh I have to get things set up and it may be a little while before I can help. I have to find a way to get the code for the door sometime today. I'm not sure how I'm gonna do that yet. I don't have a lot of time to do it. There are other things that need to be prepared to get you out but I'm not sure what those are cause I've never done anything like this. Oh my god...I've never done something like this." She threw her head into her hands rubbing her scalp.

Blue tapping on the glass made her look as he gave a reassuring smile and pointed to the metal food bin. Sylvia tilted her head at it nothing happened. She stood to walk over to the bin but then it rattled and she took a step back not sure what was causing the rattling.

The bin opened a tiny bit and Sylvia found her self staring at it missing the way Blues face scrunched up. Slowly she moved a little closer to the bin and leaned close to see it open a small fraction. She gripped her arm as she leaned closer not sure what was happening as the metal had a soft creak to it.

Something wiggled and she fell back not expecting the snake-like movement before something bright blue and thin popped out of the door. Sylvia finally looked at Blue's face to see the bright Blue blush dust over his cheeks. He gave a small nod and his eye-lights drifted back to the tray where a tiny bit of his tail poked out.

It was cute, to say the least, darker than the rest of him but still contained the bright blue glow. Sylvia wasn't sure how to feel about it being presented to her but she was curious so she shuffled till she wasn't on the ground anymore and on her knees a bit uncomfortable but it gave her a better view of the little tail she saw. Blue leaned as close as he could to watch her leaning on the ground in front his face right next to her as he wiggled it as best as he could in her direction.

She reached out with a finger to touch but stopped just out of distance. Why was he doing this for her? It couldn't be because she was going to break him out, was it? She glanced up at blue a small pout and lowered her hand away.

"Blue you don't have too." He smiled at her and gestured to the tail more like he wanted her to touch it for his own reason. She looked at it again vaguely aware that this was the closest she had gotten to a snake since the incident in college. At least this one didn't have fangs, that she could see at least and it was only just his tail. It wasn't like he could pull her threw the door or anything. She tried to imagine him doing that but the image wouldn't form in her brain it seemed too impossible. He would literally have to kill her and break every bone in her body to do that.

And this was Blue, he would never do that.

She reached out again towards his tail her arm shaking a little as she uncurled a finger towards his tail. Blue held still as she brought it closer and with a wary glance at Blue who gave another nod of encouragement she uncurled a finger in reaching distance. Blue waiting for her as she kept glancing at him waiting for him to make a move as she inched closer.

Blue was excited for her to touch him but he didn't want to scare her away and waited patiently. He felt it the moment her finger traced the end of his tail she did too if the small gasp was anything to go by.

It felt like a spark of magic swirled from his tail to her hand. Sylvia's eyes widened a little sucking in a breath a tingly feeling on the touch of her finger. It wasn't unpleasant just foreign to the touch it was like that buzz she had felt from the glass earlier when she fell asleep on it.

It was pleasantly warm to the touch.

She let out a small unexpected yelp when the tail curled around her finger. She had seen an ivy plant do something similar once before but even that had taken a few days before it wrapped around something. Sylvia knew she shouldn't be afraid of the tail since it was Blue but she couldn't help the shudder that tingled down her spine.

Wait.

The shudder felt different than what she would fear from fear. The tail gripped a little harder and loosened back up letting her pull away from it a little before it tightened again. She felt the shudder again and found herself blushing.

Odd.

She may, in fact, might be enjoying the small gesture?

Carefully she pulled the rest of her hand closer to the tail. The tail didn't unwrap from her index finger but as gently as she could she tried to cup her wrapped finger in her hand. More of the tingling sensation becomes stronger in her palm almost like a tickle with a vibration setting on it. She found it pleasant almost hypnotically and she found herself relaxing a little with it.

Gradually the tail unwrapped from her finger and was pulled back into the enclosure to its owner. Blue glanced down at her a mini smile on his face and dropped eye sockets he rolled so his stomach was towards the ceiling. He pressed his face to the tank happily. Sylvia found herself moving to the tank too and pressed her forehead too it, eyes closed. She didn't understand what it was about but she knew whatever she did with Blue it meant he trusted her and she found her self smiling and content. The worry about whether she was doing the right thing or not was gone in her mind. She was doing the right thing.

With her head down and eyes closed, she ended up missing the way Blue pressed his lips to the glass where her forehead touched.


	7. The plan (part 2)

I know I said I was breaking on this story but...lol this story has more favorites and likes than my story **hungry for another one **when I look at the comparison in the amount of likes with the amount of chapters. This story has fewer chapters but almost as many likes. So thanks, it lets me know what writing style you all prefer, or at least it lets me know what one I'm better at writing.

I also think I need to not freak out about how many words I put into a story I do have to keep in mind to let it flow more naturally so the characters are more believable and not something I pulled out of a hat.

Also, I need to stop procrastinating. AND ONE MORE THING, Hollar more Stretch!

* * *

Sylvia spent an hour with Blue before deciding to head home and feed Tick-Tock. The gator had crunched down on a chicken that Sylvia hadn't had time to pluck yet. It ended up leaving feathers around his room taking more time for Sylvia to clean up than planned.

She checked the clock to see how long it would be before her brother called again. She only had about fourteen hours to try and figure out how to get the code for Blues cage. She didn't know where Mr. Cook even kept the codes for any of the cages. She knew most of the zookeepers kept their own codes for the pens to the animals they took care of specifically. Mark would probably have the code to Blues cage but she had no idea how to get it from him even if he hadn't been on vacation.

She couldn't imagine him giving it without questions unless he was completely drunk and out of it. Sylvia sighed and leaned back on her bed. She was going to try and get some sleep in since she didn't have any before and her eyes were drooping on her. Once she laid in her bed she found herself unable to sleep. She was on a time limit after all and she needed to get Blue out in... Sylvia turned and looked at the clock for what felt like the hundredth time.

It was noon now.

Only twelve hours left.

She rolled over in bed and sighed. She wasn't going to be able to get the codes directly from Mark or Mr. Cook. Norman would ask too many questions that she wouldn't have any good answers for that he would belive and Mr. Cook would be instantly suspicious since he already knew about her brother.

Norman had liked animals like her once and still did but unlike her or their dad, he had taken a less legal method of protecting animals. He was breaking animals out of zoo's and placing them in conservation areas where poaching is highly illegal. Unfortunately, the zoo's he basically robbed weren't as lenient as mom had been when he was found out. He was blacklisted from the zoos and other places containing animals. They hadn't been able to send him to jail thanks to the pure fact there wasn't enough evidence to support what he was doing. Since he wasn't selling to the Black market there was less evidence for the police to follow and couldn't find out where the transactions went due to it. Norman wasn't making money from it like other smugglers, in fact, most people just thought he was some sort of lazy bum that probably did drugs in his free time. Seeing his tired eyes when he was caught the first time didn't make her feel that way though. Sylvia knew he spent a lot of time planning his next escape route or aiming for a high-level animal that wasn't doing as well as it should have in some restricted environment in some small-time zoo that couldn't care for it.

She was proud of him for that. If dad was still alive he would have been too.

She couldn't compare.

Sylvia rubbed her forehead between her index finger and thumb and rolled forgetting she had her glasses on as they smashed to her face. She pulled them off and set them gently on the bedside table. She laid there staring at the clock trying to decide whether to try and sleep or think of a plan. She was wasting time either way.

She sat up in bed slowly. Her eyelids felt heavy but until she thought of a plan she wasn't going to be able to sleep. That strong urge to cry starting to sneak up on her again and she had to shove the feeling away. She was short on time and crying was going to waste the time she had to get what needed to be done, done.

She just needed to think.

She took in a deep breath and let it out counting to three in her head and repeated the action five more times until she felt relaxed.

If she couldn't get the password directly from Mark or Mr. Cook then she needed to think of an alternative way of getting the code for the door. Mark was out of the question in every way she could list:

He was on vacation and thus couldn't be gotten hold of physically, not that she wanted to hold him physically. Except maybe in a headlock...

She also didn't have his phone number so she couldn't call him up and ask for the code. Not that he would give it to her especially if he wonders why Mr. Cook didn't give it to her instead.

She also didn't know where he lived so it wasn't like she could break into his house and steal the code from some sort of secret diary.

Trying to picture Mark with a diary of any form made Sylvia snort a bit imagining him scribbling in a pink fluffy book with the words 'no entry' written on it formed in her head.

Definitely not something Mark would own or do. His pride would never let him admit fault Sylvia knew that.

So if Mark was out of the picture that only left Mr. Cook who also would not tell her the password.

Mr. Cook probably didn't keep a diary either. He was the one in charge of disrupting all the codes to all the doors in the zoo.

Sylvia slumped in bed and laid her feet on the floor sitting in the 'thinking man' pose.

Considering Mr. Cooks's age and the fact there are a lot of doors all with different numbers... Sylvia remembered needing to open other doors for different keepers on their vacations and the codes were never the same for the doors.

Mr. Cook needed to keep the codes somewhere in case someone forgot or just like Mark, they went on vacation.

Sylvia let out a breath.

Mr. Cook wouldn't give her the code but was it safe to assume that it was written down somewhere in his office? On a note pad or maybe...his computer?

Mr. Cook spent a lot of time on the computer but would the computer have a password as well? She could try asking Norman but we would probably just bite her head off if she tried. If the passwords were on the computer and the computer had a password was there anyone else who had access to the computer? There might be a security guard who would need some of the info to get into the cages for security reasons. It didn't seem like a reliable way of getting into the cage though. She didn't know any of the guards well enough to ask but if she could come up with an excuss would one help her? It seemed like a possible back up plan anyway.

She could also hope that maybe Mr. Cook left it out in the open somewhere a password to his computer or...hints. If people forgot there password they often left hints written down on the computer right? She could try that.

Sylvia slumped forward almost falling off the bed her eyes drooping more now that she was relaxing. She was getting plenty of ideas of how to go about getting the codes for the door but none of them seemed foul proof for what she needed. The security guard idea seemed the most likely to work if she can trick him into letting her on the computer or giving her the codes himself.

Her bigger problem would mean talking to a guard she doesn't know and hope he doesn't suspect her of anything...illegal, and worse telling Mr. Cook before getting Blue out.

She laid back into bed the warmth from her sheets lulling her to sleep. She would have to interact with a guard and hope everything lines up according to plan. Twenty hours wasn't enough for good planning.

Norman probably knew that.

She hoped he knew that because she really wanted to save Blue.

A tear she had been fighting rolled down her cheek as she fought to keep awake a little longer. She hoped that somehow, someway fates would take pity on her friend and help her get him out. It was the only thing she could think of and her fears of not getting caught nudged at her.

Her last thought before drifting to sleep was: Is this how Norman feels when he plans this stuff?

.

.

.

Stretch woke to the darkness around him the warm sun no longer heating him up as it did before. Not that the cold bothered him before. The temperature didn't really harm in any way unless they were extreme but a cool night air did no harm to him. A dive into say: liquid nitrogen, would hurt about as much as the next guy.

Stretch sat up from his pile and did as his name implied and stretched his back till there was a satisfying pop. He didn't have time to loose he needed to get to Blue as fast as he could before the sun came up again.

He reached for the barn doors and opened them. Nothing had changed the smell of the city air still reached him as well as the light roar of a nearby highway. He needed into the city but needed to avoid the highway.

Too many lights.

He tried to follow the direction that the traffic was flowing without getting too close. He could see the shapes of the buildings in the distance and lights from the skyscrapers. The closer he got to the city the stronger the smells and sounds became and before he knew it he had stumbled upon some sort of residential district. Still too far from the city but close enough to see its impact on the suburban area being effected with it's close proximity. Flowers lined the side streets trying to give it a more homely charm despite being so close. It didn't really help the area at all since some of the buildings looked like they hadn't been cared for in a while. A few lights were still on as Stretch tried to sneak pass windows without getting caught by any wandering eyes.

He hated this already.

The scent of humans came from most of the houses some smelled strange to him like humans that were doing things shade things inside. Some buildings he could hear laughing from and others crying there were so many smells being thrown around on top of it making him dizzy.

He needed to hurry to Blue.

.

.

.

_BEEP_

_BEEP_

_BEEP_

Sylvia sat up in bed the alarm on the nightstand going off letting her know if she wanted to get those codes on time she needed to do so now. Putting her glasses on she looked at the time flaring in neon green lights at her. Only six hours left before time was up.

Sylvia rolled off her bed slowly still a little groggy but she pulled her self out almost too fast thinking about how she was going to get into Mr. Cooks's office with or without a guard. Whatever she ended up doing she was going to half to take a gamble and hope it doesn't backfire on her.

She rallied herself out of bed thinking about how this would go down but since she was being forced to wing it she didn't have much choice. She opened Tick-Tocks room to check on him and he let out a low grumble as his mirror-like eyes flashed at her from the dark.

That was another thing that bugged her. Whatever she did Tick-Tock wouldn't be able to go with her at least not all the way. He either wouldn't survive the trip or if he stayed here no one would take care of him. He would have to be left at mom's house and she wasn't sure whether Norman had thought about Tick-Tock at all. What was his plan if she did get the codes? What was mom's plan for taking care of Tick-Tock?

She had this gator since college because of Mark. The ass had tried another scare tactic with her in the classroom. He hadn't expected Sylvia to Pick up the Crocodile from her desk and squeal in glee.

His terrible plan to torment her backfired. She loved Tick-Tock the moment she got him.

And for whatever reason, he seemed to love her too.

As if sensing Sylvia distress Tick-Tock pulled himself out of his pool and planted himself at her feet slightly curled but unaggressive. He tilted his head up at her a sign he would bite should something cross his head but Sylvia had never had that problem with him. She lowered her self to the floor and stretched her hand out to the Crocodile and rubbed under his jaw a low rumbling of contentment coming from him.

She rubbed his nose knowing that he didn't really feel much threw the thick skin there but it had always been a sort of agreement between them. He would never harm her and she would take care of him. Soon she wouldn't be able to do that anymore and it made her feel like someone was gripping her heart in her chest. She loved Tick-Tock and had known Tick-Tock longer than Blue. It felt like she was betraying him in some way but as she looked at him he shuffled closer to her and as best as a crocodile could nuzzle into her side. As best as Sylvia could she hugged him back.

Sylvia knew Tick-Tock would be well taken care of with her mother but she was going to miss him.

Norman better have a plan for Tick-Tock because she wouldn't be able to take it if he didn't.

"Wish me luck...Tick-Tock." She pecked him on his nose and he let out another content rumble before she closed the door behind her and went to get ready for work trying to figure out what her plan would be exactly once she got there.

After consuming an energy drink and grabbing a snack to eat she drove her truck for the forty-minute drive there and parked outback of her work. She made a mental note that Mr. Cook had already gone home from the day since his black Prius wasn't in it's usual assigned parking spot. Her whole body felt like a broiler she had sweat dripping on her hands and hoped that the deodorant was holding back the smell.

She entered threw the employee gates and headed straight for Mr. Cooks's office passing a few guards on the way. They nodded recognizing her but didn't say or do much past that.

As she turned around the corner though she saw Mr. Cooks's office was dark and everything running in it shut down for the night. There were no guards in sight for her to ask and thought if it would look weird for her to turn around and ask one of them but... maybe she could try and do this without someone else knowing? There would be fewer people involved and if one of the guards went to confirm whether she needed the codes or not from Mr. Cook she could be royally screwed.

She reached for the doorknob only of course for nothing to happen.

The knob didn't turn.

Why she thought it would baffled her. Mr. Cook always locked the door even when he was going on his smoke breaks.

Sylvia smacked her head against the door. Less than four hours before Norman called to confirm she had the codes or not. If she didn't get them she would lose the chance to save Blue.

This was a lot for her to take in and it made her head start to hurt.

A headache just what she needed.

The whirling sound of the air conditioner going off wasn't making it any better.

Sylvia listened to the hum vibrating threw the door. She can't go threw the door unless she could pick the lock which wasn't an option since she had no idea how to pick the lock. She could try and slam it open but that would attract unwanted attention from the guards. She might have to gamble and see if they let her in and not tell Mr. Cook or ask any questions. She knew she was a terrible liar.

It's not like the building had a chimney for her to climb down either. There were the windows but smashing one open would be worse than breaking the door down and Mr. Cook never left the windows open because of the air conditioner always being on.

Sylvia stopped and paused before suddenly turning and running over to the other side of the building where the air conditioner was. She almost cried out in glee at seeing it.

A window unit air conditioner.

She didn't need to break any windows cause this one was already open it just had a heavy ass air conditioner in it. It would be a pain to lift but she was used to lifting a nine-foot crocodile in a truck for the doctors...mostly. Sometimes Tick-Tock would just walk in himself as long as the ramp was down for him.

Still, an air-conditioner was still lighter than a crocodile in any case.

Sylvia gripped the edges and wiggled her finger just a tad into the wood and began to lift at the window.

It must have been jammed as she struggled to make the window open wider the conditioner staying in place. When the window didn't budge as far as she thought it would she tried to wiggle the AC unit out of its hole. She managed to get it to tilt inward as she slid a hand inside-

**_SMASH!_**

Sylvia stared in horror at the AC unit had fallen inside and landed on top of Mr. Cooks's desk.

Right, where his computer was.

Shit.


	8. Opening and closing doors

Good news, I'm no longer looking for a house because I bought a house. Been using the quarantine weeks moving in and painting walls.

Still, scary shit on top of more scary shit. Despite being laid off for two weeks I've been busy.

I figured I should take a break and give you guys something since I assume a lot of you are also locked up indoors. (or should be) Reading a chapter will at least keep you to yourselves for the short amount of time it takes to read a chapter.

* * *

She choked back a scream her hands covering her mouth.

Sylvia Stared down at the broken keyboard of Mr. Cooks's computer in horror. It would be awfully hard to get into his computer without his password but even harder without a dam keyboard. A shuffling noise caught Sylvia's attention and the sound of footsteps getting closer sent her heart beating faster. The guards were making their rounds and the noise from the fallen AC unit was bound to attract someone over.

She wasn't smart enough to think of an excuse in time to feed the guards why she was over here and really there was nowhere to run either.

Sylvia didn't have time to take a deep breath as the sound of footsteps got closer. She grabbed onto the now empty window frame and pulled herself inside. She slid over the ledge and landed unskillfully on the floor. Her face pushed against the grimy carpet of the office her feet stuck on the ledge of the window. A light outside caught her eye as she pulled her legs in and remained flat to the wall. Her eyes shifted to different areas of the room looking for a place to hide from the flashlight and the security guards that held them.

The desk in front of her, the garage can on her right, the supply closet in the corner.

Sylvia scrambled and pulled open the supply door closing it behind her as quietly as she could. It was a tight fit a mop was pushed into her back and she was pretty sure Mr. Cook's coat was handing in front of her. She would only catch a brief glimpse of it as lights filtered threw small slits in the cabinet keeping a small amount of air circulation for her.

A few mumbled voices drifted into the room most she couldn't make out until the light grew a little brighter.

A voice carried in from outside the closet and by the sounds of it the very room filtered in. "Well dam. I knew that thing was gonna fall eventually."

"Should we call Mr. Cook?" A sound voice followed the first more high pitched but soft a girl perhaps.

"Naw, it's not an emergency, but we're gonna have to get the keyboard replaced and tell Mr. Cook about the air conditioner."

"Again?"

"He'll have to listen now. That thing was never properly fixed in place. Mark told him it would fall and he didn't listen. So now he's gonna have to live with no air conditioning for a while. Just close the window and leave it for now." Sylvia gnawed on her lip not sure what to do if they closed the window. Would she be able to get out if they closed it?

"Shouldn't we leave it open? If Mr. Cook doesn't like the heat and we close the window there won't be any airflow and the night air is going to be cooler than a closed room." Sylvia didn't know this girl but she was feeling pretty thankful to the stranger.

"I suppose...touching might be tampering with evidence too. Then again it's not like anyone would try to break in here at any rate the money is kept in a separate building. So it's not like anyone would want to break in." More shuffling followed by the click of the flashlights going off allowed Sylvia to breathe once she heard the footsteps walking away.

She stayed in the closet her mind cloudy unsure of what she was supposed to do next. Her time was running out Norman would be calling her soon and she didn't know how to get to the codes at all now. She gripped at her hair and pulled. Was this how it was going to happen? Her brother would call her and she would tell him she didn't get the codes. He would tell her she was a failure who could never do anything right and that dad would hate her for who she was. Blue would remain locked up in a plexiglass world unable to escape and live a life of freedom and it was all because she was an idiot who had knocked the air conditioning unit on top of a keyboard.

Something wet fell from her eyes down her cheeks and she pulled harder on her hair. The pain pulling her away from feeling guilt run up her spine.

It was always her fault.

A small sob left her and she let her hair go to grip at the closest thing to her. Mr. Cooks's coat was rough and often smelled of the older man. The scent of aged whiskey, mildew, and onions slip into her nose. The scent was unpleasant but not unwelcomed it smelled familiar and gave her pause. The old man hadn't been on her side and had taken Marks's view on things. Somehow Mr. Cook had only hired her because of Mark. Why did Mark even want him to hire her in the first place? She gripped Mr. Cooks coat tighter in her hands a crinkle noise made Sylvia come back to her senses. She squeezed again and the crinkly sounded again.

There was something in Mr. Cook's pocket. Sylvia patted the coat trying to find the entrance of his coat pocket finding it was in fact on the inside of his coat. She folded her hand around to the front and felt around till her hand found a slit in the inside. Mr. Cook had a wallet so it wasn't his money or anything. Mr. Cook was keeping something in his coat pocket on the inside at all times here in the zoo. It had to be something he didn't want to lose.

Something like codes to unlock a cage holding a giant blue naga maybe?

Sylvia gripped tight to the note hoping it wasn't just some receipt to the laundry mat or anything. The paper didn't have a waxy coat to it but in the dark light of the room she couldn't make out what was written down on the paper. Taking the paper she folded it and stuck it in her back pocket. She would need to find somewhere private and with lights to be able to see what it was. She pressed her ear to the door of the closet and listened wanting to make sure none of the guards were coming back to do a double-check. When she couldn't' hear anything but the near-silent ticking of the clock in the room she opened the door and peered out.

The window was left open and she couldn't hear anything that sounded like guards walking or talking around the building.

Unless they were suspicious and waiting for her. She shook her head and pulled her hair a little she really needed to stop being so paranoid all the time. First, the snakes and now the guards are out to get her. Sylvia found that if she drowned anymore in her paranoia she would be in a straight jacket.

Her brother might be happy then.

Sylvia stepped out of the closet and carefully edged her way over to the open window stepping over the broken air conditioner and keyboard. Drips from the faded yellow lamp light shined over the park in front of her reminding her of a dark street instead. If it weren't for the whooping of some of the exotic birds from the park she might have thought she was somewhere downtown.

She peaked out the window from the corner making sure no one was waiting to pounce on her once she left the room. Gripping the window ledge she pushed herself outside landing just as gracefully as she had when she had tried to enter.

Meaning she had to pull gravel out of her face instead of just musty carpet. She didn't see any blood but she did feel the rocks and dirt sticking to her skin as she tried to brush it off her face and hands almost dropping the note in the process. It probably would have been easier if she had put the note in her pocket before trying to jump out a window. Nonetheless, she still had the note and that's all that mattered.

She unfolded it under the ugly yellow light trying to see what was written on it.

**_06-06-90_**

**_07-08-48_**

**_58-76-23_**

**_14-23-65_**

**_28-34-45_**

**_56-67-78_**

**_09-10-35_**

**_80-57-67_**

They were codes alright but she only recognized the first one as the lock for the Komodo dragon exhibit. She had often been the one in charge of feeding him and not getting bitten in the process. Lucky despite her sometimes clumsiness her speed could usually make up for it.

She wasn't sure if any of these codes, however, were meant for the cages. They could have been dates on wine bottles Mr. Cook served at his Christmas parties for all she knew. She sighed pinching the bridge of her nose. There was only one way to find out if any of them worked and that was by testing it.

Sylvia folded the paper up and slid it into her pocket walking around the corner slowly in case any guards just so happened to be walking by to stop her. She found her self back on the path to the reptile house before she knew it breathing a sigh of relief. If they found her now she could think of hundreds of excuses for why she was there. She just could think of one for why she would be at Mr. Cooks's office.

Keeping her head down to avoid the images of snakes she rounded the corner past the alligator pond and looked up. Blue was only a few sections and a couple of doors away. She gripped her hand over her pocket where the codes were.

What if she couldn't open the door?

What if she got blue hyped up for it by accident and the door didn't open?

What if she got caught?

Questions ran threw her mind stumbling about making her afraid as she approached the door to the brightly lit room. The glass was dark but soft shimmers of blue light flickered in the back letting her know he was there. She found her self calming the closer she got. Her worries still there but now there were silenced like someone had put headphones on her in the middle of a roaring crowd.

Her worries muted she moved toward the glass and gently tapped.

Blue spots flickered and flared up as the light got closer to the glass. Sylvia could make out Blues form the closer he got. His beaming grin spread over his face and his eye lights seemed to spark the closer he got to the glass blue tail curled behind pushing him forward fluidly. He stood before her behind the glass his hands pressed against the surface and Sylvia wasn't sure what to say to him. She pressed her hand against the glass and gave him a shaky smile.

"I-" She started before taking a deep breath in trying to focus more on the calming feeling Blue left her with.

"I, I don't know if I got the right code or not. But I'm gonna try. I need to know that you're not gonna run out the door if I do unlock it though okay? Cause there's nowhere to escape, at least not yet. I just- I just need to know if they work okay? So please don't... please just don't run if the door opens okay?" As she spoke the words Sylvia became aware that it wasn't the fear of getting caught or even the plan not working. It even explained why she hadn't wanted to listen to her mother to break the Naga out or the fear she had for her own brother. She was simply afraid Blue would leave her behind.

Even if... that was what he needed to do to be free. Sylvia hadn't realized she had even been that selfish until now.

Blue only tilted his head at her a puzzled look on his face.

"I-Sorry blue. Just for your own safety don't run okay and if the door opens I promise the second time I open it you will be able to leave it okay?" This idea settled better with her. A promise to Blue for Blue and not for herself. Saying it out loud made it feel like she had grounded the decision in cement and that Blue would get to free again someday.

She pulled her hand away from the Glass and Blue's little eye lights grew momentarily as he watched her move closer to the door of his enclosure. Blue couldn't see her from the glass but he could still sense her if only a little standing outside the metal door.

He rushed over to his side of the door hoping that any moment the door would let out a groan or click. Anything that would tell him the locks have been released. Blue knew he was an excitable monster but despite that, he knew he had a patient soul and could wait. He became worried when the door stayed without any sign of moving in front of him but he held his ground waiting sensing Sylvia just on the otherwise of it. He heard a beep that was quickly followed by a short irritating sound he couldn't pin down but it didn't sound like a door unlocking. He heard the sounds three more times before a unique

beep ring sounded from the door.

The door made a loud clang and Blue could see metal gears turning on the door. Blue felt his soul pulse out as a crack in the door frame appeared and light from the room outside danced on the floor of his enclosure. He gripped the stone below him and held his breath despite not needing air.

Sylvia stared at him threw the crack in the door her face unreadable till her eyes landed on him and in the blink of an eye, she smiled at Blue.

It was like a heavy blanket was pulled off of him. She stood there in front of him nothing separating them but air. Blue felt like he had been frozen in place.

"Blue?" The words fell from her lips the spell was broken.

Blue raced to the door to stand in front of her unsure if any of this was real. He gripped the door afraid that would close again if he didn't and stared down at the tiny human her scent washing over him like new rain.

Sylvia was taken back but only for a moment staring up at Blue as he held the door. He and raced so quickly to her it looked like he had teleported one moment at the rock the next in front of her.

She wondered if opening this door had been the right thing. Slamming it on him seemed like the next thought to cross her mind if he wasn't already holding the door open. She couldn't help but wonder if she had made a mistake but the moment he held up his hand to her to take she knew she didn't.

She stared at his hand but swallowed the lump that had form in her throat and placed her hand in his gently. He lowed himself to her level closing his fingers around hers as he did so and gently like she would break pulled her to him. Her heart fluttered as he wrapped her in his arms and squeezed. His snake-like body intimidating her briefly before he loosened and pulled her into his habitat letting go of the door as it closed behind them.


	9. Into the enclosure

Hello everyone! Hows quartine? I'm still alive hope you all are too otherwise id get no pleasure from writing anymore if no one around to read it. :(

Let's see where do I start...

1\. I'm sorry, this chapter is about 500 words short of where I like to stop but I enjoy tormenting you all with cliff hangers. I must be a sadist. Did I say this before I don't remember?

2\. I stopped writing for so long cause I did a terrible thing that I shouldn't do: Compare my self to better writers. I can't promise I won't fall into a slump and do it again. I also checked my readability score and it said it was for a sixth-grade level and I thought, Shit, I'm really bad at this. BUT, then when you put famous writers in like I dunno Shakespeare his score not much higher or something so...those test are apparently pointless.

3\. I didn't stop writing but I started like 6 other fanfiction. Good beginnings but I don't know if they're ever gonna take off so I didn't post them.

4\. Once I finish _Hungry for another one _I may start posting a different fanfiction. You can help me pick which one by posting in the comments or p.m me(see step 3). There all undertake related so no worries on that.

5\. If anyone had suggestions for Hungry for another one, please let me know. Otherwise, I feel like the whole thing just needs to go threw a re-write, and that will take time. I refuse to drop it cause I made a promise.

* * *

Sylvia wasn't sure why she allowed Blue to pull her into his exhibit it was dark and smelled of stagnant water. She would have to bring the water issue up with maintenance if she managed to get out of here. Right now, however, she was being pulled along by Blue to the back of his cave. His hand was firmly latched on hers and she had to be careful about where she stepped when he pulled. The ground was uneven and she could easily slip and fall while Blues bioluminescent tail made it easy for him to maneuver between the sharp edges and smooth stones. He seemed to be trying to pull her somewhere in the cave where the rocks slopes dropped off into a rugged valley of pebbled stone. A few branches and long grass were pulled into a circle on the ground almost looking like a bird's nest just much bigger.

When she stood on the ledge looking down at it Blue stopped pulling and turned to her. The giant smile he had on never left him and he pointed to the twig pile and looked back at her. She tilted her head not sure what he wanted and his smile fell a little his eye lights looking towards the ceiling as if thinking and he snapped his fingers. Sylvia felt like screaming as Blue started to wrap around her but the moment she opened her mouth to do so he stopped, his movements ceased. Slowly he held his arms out to her. He looked back to the pile on the ground back to her his eye lights starting at her feet and drifted up examing her form.

She gripped her arms not sure if she liked the way he looked at her but then his smile came back in full force making her feel calm again. He moved towards her and wrapped his arms around her torso and lifted. Sylvia felt the ground go out from below her as Blue lifted her over the rocks and towards the pile of twigs and grass. Carefully he let part of his body drop down into the pit and slowly Sylvia watched as the rocks glid past her vision as he placed her down into the pile of twigs below her.

Was this a nest? Did snakes make nests? She could've sworn most snakes would take the burrow of a rabbit of some other creature but making nest like a bird...That was pretty unheard of.

She patted the nest around her examing it. Considering the only branches they had were the ones that were placed in by the workers it was kinda impressive. Large enough for blue to curl around in twice if wanted too. The twigs scratched gently at her skin but the grass blue had gathered helped cushion the sharp twigs.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see Blue watching her as she examined his nest. He glanced at her and stilled like he was waiting for her to do something. "Is this your bed? It's uh, very nice?"

Almost immediately Blue wrapped his arms around her and laid in the nest keeping his long tail outside of it. The blue light illuminating the area in an almost dream-like way. Sylvia wondered if he was keeping his tail away from her because of her fear.

He was very considerate and a part of her wished she wasn't so scared of him.

Blue pressed the side of his head to hers and began to rub the side of his skull into her cheek. The nuzzling made her cheeks flush pink wondering if he was doing this as some kind of scent marker. Gently she pressed her hands to his skull and gave a gentle shove.

She glanced downward unable to meet him in eyes. "Uh, Blue as nice as this is I can't really stay. Thell notice if I'm gone for too long."

Blue let out a chirp his hands cupping her face. He tilting her head up to look at him, face getting closer. His eye lights shrank before slowly becoming larger and filling the sockets, bright blue like before they seemed like high beams in a dark hallway. The lights slowly became bigger then she felt something hard on her lips, smooth and cool to the touch. Warm air touches her face as something thin and soft pushes at her lips. The blue lights in his sockets dance around like there were trying to pool out into the cave making her shoulders slump and head feels fuzzy.

Something thin pokes at her mouth and for a split second her mind tells her to pull away but it is quickly dashed by the fuzzy feeling in her head. Blue hands run up further into her hair as he presses her skull harder against his. The thin appendage she could only assume was his tongue parted her lips slightly and brushed against her teeth.

The moment his tongue tried to pass her teeth the spell he seemed to have on her shook and she felt like she was falling reaching for something too far out of reach. She gripped his hands in hers and pulled them away from her face twisting her head away from the invader sticking out of his mouth. "What are you doing?" Her voice shuddered as she looked at his ocean colored tongue dangling out of his mouth. Blue stared as he normally does before slipping his tongue back inside his head, tilted, confused at her reaction. His eye sockets were no longer filled with the bright beams of light as before and were now back to there small blue lights. The fuzzy feeling was gone from her head.

Sylvia stood up and pulled away from him. She didn't know what he just did to her. He had kissed her of sorts, sure, but was that what his intentions were? That can't have been it. They weren't' even the same species. "I should go back. Now that we know I can open the door we just gotta wait for the right time to break you outta here." She turned away from Blue and headed to a shallow path. It had been barely noticeable in the light and looked steep.

If she went about it carefully she could climb it without help from Blue. She gripped the wall, rock cold and rough under her hand as she pulled herself up onto a small ledge. She goes to pull herself up onto the next one but something grips her wrist and yanks her back. She can feel arms wrap around her and pull her back. Sylvia squirms trying to wiggle free of the boney grip wrapped around her. She is placed next to Blues nest and as soon as her feet touch the ground she turns to glare at Blue.

Blue doesn't notice as he's plopped himself onto the ground below her. His hands curling into the dirt and his eye lights look anywhere but at her face.

Sylvia notes in most dogs animals make take a crouching position as a form of submission but, some animals take on crouching as a form of attack. With that small flake of thought and the fact that half his body was literally what plagued her nightmares caused her to cry out and pull back.

She moved too quickly backward and stumbled to the floor. Her knees hit the dirt and rock roughly shooting a bit of pain in her snapping her from her thoughts. Blues head shot up from the ground looking over her frantically before he pulled himself in closer stopping to look at her. He reached out to examine her but she pushed back away from him covering her eyes.

"I'm sorry." She curled in on herself. It felt like that dam that she had been long bordered up was suddenly broken. Everything from her brother's hate-filled attitude towards her, breaking into her bosses office, hiding from the guards to breaking into the nagas cage had broken the walls she had unknowingly built and now to top it all off she had just shoved and pushed her best friend away all because he MIGHT have hurt her.

It was college all over again.

"I'm sorry, i'm sorry, im'sorry..." Her words began to mumble together as she felt her eyes burn and throat tighten. Her chest hurt as tears fell from behind her hands hoping Blue wouldn't see the ugly crying face she made.

Something nudged her head but she couldn't bear to look knowing it had to be Blue. Hard but firm arms wrapped around her carefully as if afraid she would break further if they didn't. She felt herself being pressed into Blues ribs as he let out a low purr and a chirp.

He was forgiving her.

Sylvia cried harder but this time but instead of pushing Blue away she returned his hug keeping her head down and burying her nose into her sleeve to keep the snot off of him. As his purring increased she cried harder trying to suppress her distress so much that she didn't even notice Blue was slowing lifting her out of his nest and carrying her carefully back to the exit she had entered in from.

She felt his grip tighten around her but didn't look up. She wasn't ready yet and didn't want to leave the comforting embrace of her friend. It seemed that he didn't want her to leave either as he curled up outside the door. He sat Sylvia on top of his coils unknowingly to her as she simply continued to cry into her sleeve.

His hand rubbed gently up and down her back soothing her cries down into much smaller sobs.

The way his hand rubbed up and down her back gave her a similar feeling that she felt a long time ago. The warmth and comforting hand trailing near her spine felt so familiar to her. Who else had done something similar for her?

There was only one person she could think of that would do this when she was having a bad day. His hands were bigger and he would move the tips of his fingers up and down at a faster pace than Blue, but the comforting way and sense of wanting to help her felt the same. Slowly her sobs softened and she persuaded herself to pull back out of Blues hug.

Her lungs burned and her eyes felt tired and puffy but she managed to look up into Blue's face. His smile no longer bright and he looked like he had wanted to cry just as badly as she did.

"I-" What could she say to what just happened? Hey, Blue thanks for giving me an awkward human kiss? Was that a kiss? Thanks for babying me? Thanks for... 'sometimes the answer is simpler than you think' words echoed in her head.

"Thank you, Blue. I haven't had a hug like that in a long time." He chirped at you and hugged you again. His smile bright again but his eye bones arched in worry for her.

"The last time someone hugged me like that was my dad." He let out a low purr of encouragement. "He was a good man and a greater dad. He would have liked you, I think..? Probably wouldn't have liked you kissing me though." She lets out a nervous chuckle but Blue only looks confused.

She felt incredibly stupid now.

He didn't know what a kiss was at all. Whatever he did had been something else. Her hand twitched wishing she could slap herself with one of the stalagmites in his cave but he would stop her before she had the chance.

She shook her head dismissing his confused stare. "It's okay if you don't know what it is. As a matter of fact, I'd say dad would be more likely to forgive you if you don't know." Blue seemed less saddened by her statement and nuzzled into her neck letting out soft purs.

"Okay, okay." She shifted but raised her hand and began to scratch at his skull with the stubs of nail she did have. He stopped purring suddenly and she froze. Did she hit a nerve or maybe an old wound?

He suddenly tightened around her again his purring picking up speed as he nuzzled harder into her neck and chirped. She relaxed and continued to scratch similarly the way he had done to her. She could never rub his back the same way he did hers since he consisted mostly of bone and air. She might have to try and scratch his spine next time if he allowed her.

As she pulled away from Blue she looked down and let out a squeak of surprise realizing she was no longer anywhere near the nest and was now seated on top of his blue coils. She stopped breathing for a moment as Blue blushed a pretty shade of lighting blue and lifted her off of him. He set her down a bit aways from the door and away from his coils.

"S-sorry Blue. I don't mean to be so afraid or anything." He chirped again and nuzzled his face to the top of her head. He pulled back hesitantly looking between her and the door letting out more chirps.

"Yea, Im sorry. I have to go back it would be really suspicious if they found me in here. But I'll definitely bring you more Tacos or maybe I'll get you some nachos to shake it up, oh I know a shake...wait that might be too cold for you..." Blue let out a chain of small hissing that he tried to cover with his hand but she still picked them up. His eye lights going back to the star-shaped form and spinning around.

She thought she might freeze but the hissing sounded different from a snake it sounded more human?

Giggling? Blue was laughing at her!

She felt her cheeks pull up into a grin and found herself giggling with him. "Thank you again, Blue. I promise ill bring something tasty back with me next time." He nodded and chirped as she carefully made her way back to the door. "Goodbye for now Blue. Sleep tight and I'll let you know as soon as I find out about what the plan is to get you out of here okay?"

Another nod from Blue as she opened the door with a harsh tug making the door creak open with difficulty.

"GOODBYE SYLVIA!" A loud proud voice echoed in the room around her.

She jumped looking at Blue with wide eyes waving to her as the door closed behind her. She looked around the room to see no one but her inside it.


End file.
